Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord
by Sirius Padriac
Summary: Harry gets a letter in the summer from Dumbledore inviting him to an elite group of witches and wizards know as the order of the phoenix. From there Harry begins to learn about his parents, deal with voldermort and his death eaters. CHAPTER 14 IS UP!!!!!!
1. The Group and the Letter

A/N: Hello everyone! This is my first story but by no means am I a fan fiction rookie. I have been reading fics for a long time. Please any positive/constructive criticism will be appreciated. Please if you have any comments leave them I don't care if they are good or bad I appreciate any feedback so I can see what people like and what people don't like. I will respond to every reviewer in my next chapter. Thanks and good bye. 

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord 

"Enter" Voldermort said when he heard a knock at the door. _This better be good_ he thought to himself. Voldermort really hates being interrupted while sleeping.

"M-M-M-Master, I-I have some dis-disturbing news concerning the g-g-giants." Petigrew whispered to his Lord. 

"What is it Wormtail?" 

"Well, you see, I-I tried to offer our hand to them…but-but it seems that Dum- that Dumbledore has gotten to them first. They are being allowed to stay on Hogworts grounds this year." 

"Very well Wormtail. Is that all?" Voldermort continued after Peter shook his head 'yes'. "Although I admit the giants would have been great allies, we can do without them. The Demetors on the  other hand, are priceless. We have to work quick if we would like to get them and my _faithful" _he gave a meaningful look at his servant. " death eaters all at once. SILENCE!" Voldermort yelled as Wormtail was stuttering out that he was indeed faithful. "Do you have any other information for me Wormtail?"

"No, Sir"

"Then you are dismissed. Send Malfoy in." 

"Yes, Master."

"My Lord, you wished to see me?" Lucis asked his master.

"Yes Lucis I did. What do you have to tell me about the Demetors? And, before you answer, let me tell you that you better hope that it is better than what Wormtail had to tell me" and Lucis cringed as he saw Voldermort reach into his robes, to get his wand. "because I allow him more mistakes than I allow others because of what he did for me. Perhaps I allow too much. But in any event, we do not have time for me to tell you my faults. You are here to tell me something so lets hear it." 

"Well, sir, you see, it's not that they don't want to join our side" Lucis tried to explain, then hurried up when Voldermort actually took his wand out of his robes. "they just don't believe me when I tell them that you are back." He blurted out.

A small smile spread across Voldermorts face. That's easy enough to deal with he thought. "Very good Lucis. Send everyone else home. I will have to rest if I'm to see the Demetors myself tomorrow."

"We all know who we must enlist if we are to truly win this battle." Dumbledor spoke to those at the table around him.

"But sir, you do know his relations?" Another at the table questioned.

"I have told you before and I will tell you again. I do not care about his relations. This is it. It is no longer up for discussion. It shall be put to vote."  Dumbledor spoke matter-of-factly. And so they did. Even know the members of this mysterious group did not like the idea, they just couldn't help themselves in trusting Dumbledor. All but one voted to take in this new man. "I am sorry Alastor, but you have been out voted. We shall take Mr. English into our ranks. He is waiting outside so I shall go get him." 

This little group that was organized was a resistance against Voldermort. Some of the old members from before his downfall were still there, and some new members sat there now. This group was called the Order of the Phoenix. They sat in a small secret room that you can only get to from a secret passage in the Headmaster of Hogworts office. Not even the Marauders map showed it. As the door opened and Patrick English walked in, everyone slightly tightened up. 

"Alright, now that we are all here, I would like to go through a little introduction so we can all be identified to the new comers of the group. I will start. My name is Albus Dumbledor, Headmaster at Hogworts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Order of Merlin 1st class. Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards." 

"Oh is that all?" Sirius said jokingly from the other end of the table. 

"I am Abrealla Figg. Master of disguise."

"Alastor Moody. 'Mad-eye' to some. Ex-Auror." 

"Best one I've ever seen too!" 

"Sirius, must you have a comment for everyone at the table?" Dumbledor asked smiling.

"Sorry Albus. Just trying to keep things interesting. From now on I'll just whisper them to Moony over here, he'll appreciate them." Remus Lupin rolled his eyes.

"Mundungus Fletcher. Nothing really special but I've been know to be a great spy."

"Arthur Weasly. I guess the only thing I'm really great at is muggles, but I'm going to try real hard to help you guys out."

"Molly Weasly. Also, not spectacular at anything 'accept disciplining Fred and George from what I hear' Sirius whispered.  But I'm going to try my best to do all I can."

"Charlie Weasly. Master with dangerous magical creatures, especially dragons."

"Bill Weasly. Great at breaking charms and setting them."

"Percy Weasly. Really good at working hard and glad to be at your service."

"Fleur Delacour. Part Veela. Former Tri-Wizard champion."

"Victor Krum. Qudditch Seeker for Bulgaria. Also, former Tri-Wizard champion."

"Professor Magongall. Expert at Transfiguration."

"Professor Snape. Expert at Potions."

"Professor Flitwick. Expert at Charms."

"Former Professor Lupin. Defense Against the Dark Arts expert."

"Sirius Black. Expert at keeping people smiling. Oh yeah. Serious time, sir. I forgot." He said looking at Dumbledor trying to hold back a smile. "I'm real good at curses and counter-curses." 

"We know that all to well. What with 13 all at…"  Sirius stood up at once and pulled out his wand.

"That will be all Servus thank you. We all know Sirius was framed. Trying to get him upset by saying things like that is not what we are here for."

"I wouldn't talk about killing people if I were you Snape."

"Well you're not me now are you?"

"That's enough both of you." Dumbledore yelled. 

"Ahh I  believe I'm next." Boomed Hagrid. "Rebus Hagrid. Keeper of the Keys and Grounds here at Hogworts. Expert with magical animals. Also, I'm half giant."

"Madam Maxine. Headmistress at Bueatbatons school of Magic. Half giantess."

"Patrick English. Headmaster and Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Salem School for Witches and Wizards. Order of Merlin, 1st and 2cd class. Also, former Minister of Magic in America."

Then it went back to Dumbledore but just as he was standing up and about to begin talking, Patrick started again.

"I know I'm new here but my I make a suggestion?" Everyone nodded in agreement. Except Moody that is. "We will not get very far without Harry Potter. I wish we could invite him into our ranks." 

"Ahh, now I have gave this thought. But you see Harry is just a mere child and doesn't know enough advanced magic yet." Dumbledore started.

"I'll help him. I will tutor him and he will learn more in 3 months with me than he would have learned in his final 3 years at Hogworts. Of course I may need a little help from some of the professors here at Hogworts. But I'll do more that 90 percent of the work. We need him no one here excerpt perhaps you, Dumbledore, really knows the extent of his powers. You know we will not succeed  fully without him."

"Fine I will put it to vote again. Do you all wish to have Harry Potter join our ranks. We will vote then if we vote 'yes' to have Harry join us, we will end the meeting until I can get him here. If we vote 'no' then we will continue the meeting as planned. All in favor of having Harry Potter join the Order of the Phoenix, please raise your hand. Alright, all opposed? It's settled then Harry Potter-" 

At that very time a skinny 14 year old boy was sitting in his room doing an essay for his least favorite class. Not only was it the class he didn't like but the subject on which he had to write about hit to close to home for him for his liking: How will the news that Professor Dumbledore gave you at the end-of-the-year feast (About You-Know-You's return) directly effect you? But as he was thinking about all that, he heard a knock at the window. _'Wonder what that's about' Harry thought. 'Hedwig just left to hunt a few hours ago. She shouldn't be back for ages.'_  Then he looked over and saw the big impressive owl that usually brought his school letter, _but it is much to early for that, _Harry thought because it was only 2 weeks into vacation. As he untied the owl's letter, it ruffled its feathers and flew off importantly. Harry did not immediately recognize the writing and did not know who the letter was from until he reached the end were it was signed. The letter was short enough and it read: 

Dear Harry, 

Your presents is requested here at Hogworts. I can not tell you why because of fear of this letter being intercepted. Either myself or Snuffle's will personally be coming to get you tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Normally I would ask your relatives if this would be ok first, but this can not be negotiated. Please have your school things ready as it will be safer for you to spend the rest of your summer here at Hogworts where I can keep my eye on you anyway. There can not be a wait at your house for you to get your things packed after one of us get there, because one; Sirius will have to be in and out with you if he gets there, as he will not be welcome in your aunt and uncles house seeing as they still believe him a murderer. And two; you have to be at Hogworts by 9:30 so you don't have much time to waste. The port-key is set up to transport you into a town right outside Hogsmead, why you can't come right into Hogsmead or Hogworts will all be explained to you when you get here. I am very sorry about the short notice but there was nothing I could do about the matter. We need you here as soon as possible. But please don't worry about it.   

  

Yours truly, 

Professor Dumbledore 

_Well that's  odd_. Harry thought to himself.  But anyway, he had already planned to get up at 5:00 in the morning after seeing that he needed his things packed by 9. Not that he had a lot of stuff, but he needed time to tell the Dursley's that another grown, fully trained wizard would be coming to the house. There would undoubtedly be a fight about that, one which he didn't want Professor Dumbledore or Sirius to witness. He didn't want Sirius to witness it because he would probably lose his temper and turn the Dursley's into toads, not that Sirius was dangerous, he just didn't like them since they talked bad about Lily and James. All Sirius needed was one bad comment about either of them, and the Dursley's were as good as dead. He didn't want Dumbledore to see it because Dumbledore put him in there and he didn't want him seconded guessing his decision. Even if he would want to be anywhere but the Dursley's house. Well perhaps not Snape's. Plus, Dumbledore had enough to deal with without dealing with the Dursley's on top of it. _'Well,'_ Harry thought, _'I better get to sleep since it's already 2 a.m.' _And with that as his last thought before he went to bed, he lied down.

_Phew!!! _Thought Harry. It was always a relief when he woke up and it was not drenched in sweat with his scar hurting. He had had many dreams since the Tri-Wizard tournament, but none that gave him any useful information. So he stopped sending Dumbledore owls, since they did him no good to hear _Dear Professor Dumbledore, had a dream last night. Voldermort mad at one of the death eaters again for spilling something. Used the Crutains curse on him. Nothing else though, I woke up as soon as he lifted the spell. Yours truly, Harry Potter. _Ya those must have been pretty useless to him. Well anyway Harry started packing and wasn't done until 8:30. _Good thing I got up so early_. Harry thought. Who would have expected it to take 2 ½ hours to pack. _Well mise well go down stairs and start the argument with the Dursley's. _Harry thought to himself.

"Um, Uncle Vernon?  Aunt Petunia?" Harry started nervously.

"Yes"

"What is it" They both asked nastily. 

"Either Professor Dumbledore or Sirius are coming to get me 9:00 this morning." Harry started cautiously. He didn't want to start a fight. Not that he didn't think Dumbledore or Sirius couldn't take care of it if they locked Harry up, its just he didn't want them to have to use magic here. Especially Sirius cause what if someone came to see why Harry was using spells in the summer? 

"S-s-s-Sirius?" Uncle Vernon said chocking on his eggs. Aunt Petunia simply gasped and turned as white as the curtains. "Your godfather Sirius?" Uncle Vernon asked. 

"Yes." Harry said, holding back the smile that was trying so ever hard to spread. How could he have forgotten? They would never forbid anything that Sirius wanted. They were petrified of him.

"Very, well. Just make sure you yell that you're leaving when you do leave. And tell that maniac that if he comes upstairs, I don't care what freakish powers he has, I'll give him the beating of a lifetime." Uncle Vernon said with much more confidence than he would have if Sirius really turned up at the doorstep. And then he, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley all went upstairs and barricaded themselves in his aunt and uncle's room. After a half an hour's wait, the door bell rang and Harry, just to taunt the Dursley's, yelled up the stairs, "Do you want me to get that?" 

"Ah, Harry I suspect your ready to go."  Harry turned to ice, for that was not Dumbledore nor Sirius at the door. It was Voldermort. And Harry didn't even have his wand. Harry screamed, then from the corners of the bushes, two people stepped out. And he has never been happier to see two people in his life. It was Mad-Eye Moody and Professor Dumbledore. But what they did next surprised Harry more than anything. They laughed and shook Voldermorts hand.

"Well done Abrealla." Professor Dumbledore said. Harry was confused. But Moody was pure angry.

"What if this had really been Voldermort? Do I go around telling everyone to have CONSTANT VIGILANCE all the time for nothing? You have much to learn young man. Walking around at times like these without a wand. And you don't even look to see who's outside the door before you open it. YOU OF ALL PEOPLE! I thought you were ready." 

"Now, now Alastor." Dumbledore spoke. "You mustn't be so harsh on the boy. He is, after all only 14, and he has came out on top from battles with Voldermort 4 times now."  What is this? How can they be so calm. Then as Harry looked back up at Voldermort, he saw not Voldermort, but a woman of about 40.

"But-What-I don't understand." Harry sputtered. Then the mysterious women answered her question.

"Hello Harry. So nice to see you again." She said.

"Again? I'm sorry. Do I know you?" All three chuckled and Harry was getting agitated. 

"Well maybe you'll better recognize me like this." Said the woman. And all of a sudden Harry was looking at his former baby-sitter, Mrs. Figg.

"Mrs. Figg?" Harry spoke.

Then all of a sudden he was looking at the young woman of 40 again. "Yes. Abrealla Figg at your service. You see Harry, I am master of disguise. I have disguised myself for years, pretending to be that little old lady down the street so I can keep an eye on you. But this is not the time. People are waiting for you." She said.

For the first time since he saw Voldermort, Harry looked down at his watch. "Oh no Professor, the port-key, its already 9:05."

"Ah, not to worry Harry. We are not taking a port-key there. That was just so you would be ready when we got here." Dumbledore insured Harry. 

"Then how are we getting there?" Harry questioned.

"We will apperate. Alastor and Abrealla by themselves. And me holding onto you. So if were all ready, I don't see the point in standing out here." Dumbledore answered. And they all apperated to a small town that looked similar to Hogsmead. 

"Welcome back Harry." Mad-Eye said.

"Back? I've never been here." Harry said confused.

"Oh yes you have Harry." Abrealla assured him. "Welcome Harry. Welcome back to Gordic's Hollow.

Harry sat there very confused. This looked like an all wizards neighborhood, and the only time he had even been in a wizards house was at the Burrow. Except, Harry thought, no, it couldn't be, but it's the only explanation. 

"Is this where I lived before Voldermort's first downfall?" Harry asked. They all just smiled and shook their heads. "Well, can I ask why am I here?" Harry said cautiously.

"Well Albus, Arabella and myself should be going now. Don't forget the meeting is at 12 noon." Moody said.

"Of course. How much time does that give us?"

"Well its 9:35, sir." Harry answered.

"Very well. That gives us time. We will see you at 12. Alastor. Arabella," Dumbledore nodded at them in turn and they apperated away.

"Um, Professor? May I ask you something?"

"Go right ahead Harry."

"What are we doing here?" Harry asked

"Perhaps I should give you a bit of a history lesson first Harry. You see, Gordic Hollow is a famous place. And in this famous place there is a famous castle. We will be going there shortly. This castle was built by Gordic Gryffindor himself as a gift to his sister and his sister's new husband, named Mathew. Now matt was a very powerful wizard, so in return he had this place named after Gordic. Gryffindor's sister was murdered by Slytherin, while Salazar was trying to take over the castle. Matt and his wife, Angela, put up a brave battle, Angela was killed but matt was able to hold off Salazar with the help of the houses protections. Just as Salazar was beginning to get the upper hand, Gryffindor (who got wind of a wizards duel taking place in his Howell) came to sort things out, not knowing that the duel was between his worst enemy and his brother-in-law. Gryffindor was able to force Slytherin away, and Matt was so grateful. He told Gordic that if there was anything he could do to just name it. Gordic's request was simple enough. He asked Matt to keep the castle in his family forever never selling it and never letting anyone else take it no matter what." The whole time he was talking they were walking and now Harry got his first glimpse of the castle. It must have been as big as Hogworts. In fact, Harry saw a great lake, a Qudditch Pitch, and a huge forest just like Hogworts. 

"It's buetiful." Harry said in awe.

"About 20 years ago myself and 2 other very powerful wizards, put a complicated charm on it to protect it and whoever is inside it. The only way you can step foot on these grounds is if the owner askes you to, and is under no influense of anything. Sort of works like an age line. Allow me to demonstrate. 

Dumbledore started walking and as soon as his foot touched the grass, he was thrown 10 feet backwards. 

"It also deflects curses." He said. Then pointed his wand torwards the castle and shouted 'Stuperfly'. The curses shot then right where Dumbledore's  foot reaced the curse just made a big 'BANG' and light flew everywhere.

"Well who owns it then?" Harry asked curiously. Dumbledore smiled as if this was the very question he was waiting for Harry to ask.

"Well Matt remaried soon after, and folowing Gordic's directions, had a son. He gave him the castle when he was old enough. His son had a son and so on. And ever since Matt, this castle has stayed in his family. Mathew Jarrod Potter was the first to live here, and only Potter's have lived here since. So, Harry, if you could be so kind as to invite me in, I will show you around." The two walked around for almost an hour. It was huge. It had 20 bedrooms, 10 studies, 8 librarys, and 4 recreation rooms. Besides the outdoor Quiditch field, there was an indoor one too. Which included a training pit. It also had 2 duleing rings, and a swimming pool.

"Now Harry, there are some more important things I have to tell you. It is much safer for you to live here, so you will during the summer. Also, you have to come here on breaks. Now I only have one rule, as there are many secret passages, some leading to Hogworts and some to Hogsmead, I beg you not to use them. If you need something from Hogsmead, then send a house elf."

"I have house elfs?" Harry asked amazed.

"Oh course, you don't think this place kept itself up for 14 years?" Dumbledore chuckeled. "Now, this is the most amazing part." Harry looked at the door Dumbledore was looking at. It had a sign that said 'Apparation Wards'. "This, Harry, is a room that will allow you to go strait from here to my office anytime you want. This is the only part Gordic Gryffindor himself did not design. You see, James and myslef were very good friends, and so I had his permant permission to come back and forth through here. You see just like Hogworts, you can't apperate or disapperatewhile on these grounds. You and I are the only ones that can see this room. Now, Harry, you have a dession to make. Do you wish to take the power from me to come and go as I please?"

"Of course not."

"Good then. If you go into that room, and press the red button, you will be transferred to a secret room in my office. Hit the green button and you will pop up right where the Gryffindor Lion is on the rug in front of my desk. Press your wand tip to the Lion's mouth and say 'Potter's Palace' and you will find yourslef back in that hidden room. Press the red button and you will be transported  back here. This is the only magical way to get here, since you can't apperate, use flue Powder, or a  portkey on or to these grounds. I dare say this castle is better protected than Hogworts. Let me say that it is not a wise idea for you to give anyone the power I have to freely roam these grounds, because anyone with unlimited accsess to this castle is in immediate danger. Also, you must tell no one you are here, as your not sopposed to be until you are 18."

"Um, Professor?" Harry started.

"Yes, Harry?" Dumbeldore answered.

" Can the house elfs appear and siapear on there grounds?" Harry asked.

"If you give them permission to." Dumbledore answered.

"Well than can I ask you to do something else for me?" Harry asked.

"Go ahead, Harry."

"Can you put 20 foor high walls around the grounds? And only one opening? Where I can put a house elf so they can tell me if someone is here?" Harry pleaded.

"Not a problem. But it will have to be done tomorrow, because we have a meeting to attend right now." Dumbledore answered.

"One last thing sir. Can I give you one of my house elfs for Dobby?" Harry begged.

"You can have Dobby for free Harry. I know how fond of each other you two are." And they went one after another into the apperation ward back to Hogworts.

A/N: Review!!


	2. The Meeting

A/N: WOW! This got out quick! See how fast I'll update if you review? Now I have a question for you. Would you guys rather have me post one chapter every 7-8 days and make it really long, or one chapter every 3-4 days but have it be short? Leave it in your review. Also if you would like me to e-mail you when the next chapter is out leave it in your review. Of course to do that you would have to review in the first place. Also I am planning a sequel to this story and maybe a title change also. I would like nice and long reviews but even if all you do is a quick one-liner or something I will be happy. With no further a due, here's chapter two!

Oh yeah there will be further a due because I have to respond to my reviews. But, since only TWO PEOPLE REVIEWED, it should be done fast. Here goes: 

**Usako3000: Thanks for the review. Give this one a chance I'm hopping it won't be your average fifth year "Order of the Phoenix" based fanfic. But I am so happy you were surprised. Just keep reading more surprises are in store. I thought Sirius jokes were good too thanks! And about him being to fresh out of Azkaban to make them, if you don't mind I may take that idea and run with it a little. I enjoy light-hearted Sirius too. I think that's how he will be as Ms. Rowling continues her series. But maybe I'm wrong there because you're right she has been writing that he still has the sunken look in his eyes from Azkaban and he does seem awful serious for the joker he is supposed to be. I took your advise on the spelling and consulted the books for some spelling of names and ran a spell check. If I missed some feel free to point it out so I won't do it as much anymore. And as far as Arabella goes, I'm still struggling to find a true description of what she looks like when she's not in disguise. Suggestions on that will be appreciated.  Oh yeah, KEEP WRITING!!! WHEN'S YOUR NEXT CHAPTER COMING I NEED TO KNOW WHATS HAPPENING! You and those damn cliffhangers I love to read them and I hate to read them. Does that make any sense? Well I'm babbling but since you left a long review I left a long response. So read and enjoy.**

**RockKing69: Thanks for the review. I will be e-mailing you as soon as I post this chapter. And about the alamarang fanfiction group, if you could explain that to me I would be very grateful. It has me very confused. I also took into mind your comment about spelling mistakes and if you see any more please point them out. I tried to cut down on them but I'm an awful speller and spell check doesn't get everything. I promise you I have put more effort into checking for them this chapter. Even though more effort in checking for them from me usually means the story is still filled with them. Thanks for your review.**

Now seriously with no more further a due here's the next chapter.

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

****

Before Harry knew what hit him he was walking into a room filled with wizards and witches, most of whom he recognized. Once the chatter died down Dumbledore stood up to begin the meeting. "In efforts to save time we will with hold the introductions this time because I believe Harry and almost everyone here are already acquainted. And the few people he doesn't know he will be spending a great deal of time with in the near future anyway. So we will start by going around the table and with updates on what we have done so far. Arabella if you would be so kind," Dumbledore bowed his head and sat down. 

"Moody, Mundungus, and myself have been trying to find a way to infiltrate the death eater ranks but as of now we have had no success." The woman Harry saw this afternoon sat down and a few seats down  Mr. Weasley stood up. 

"I have been trying to make sense of the muggle attacks so we can anticipate their next moves, but right now they seem completely random. I can make no sense of them whatsoever."

"I have been keeping track of the wizards that have gone missing, and they too seem to have no pattern as of yet." Mrs. Weasley began as her husband sat down. 

"I'm working around the clock to try and find a way to get one or two of the dragons I've been working with in Romania can come and guard the Hogworts grounds. But there are so many restrictions on them I can't get the specifics figured out. I think I have almost found a loop-hole in the laws. Maybe four or five more days and we will have ourselves two old fashion guard dragons." Charlie Weasley's last words brought a look of concern onto many faces around the table but it also brought a look of pure joy onto the face of Hagrid. Charlie then sat down to let his brother Bill address the table.

"Professor Flitwick and I have been working restlessly for almost two weeks trying to set up more protection spells around Hogworts and Hogsmead. Give us one or two more days and we will have done all we can do." As this last sentence indicated Bill was done, the last Weasley involved in the Order stood up.

"I have been talking to the right people at the Ministry to try and persuade them to side with Hogworts again. It's been tough because as my mom and dad have said, there doesn't seem to be any sign of death eaters anywhere. People are beginning to think I'm trying to start some kind of uprising or something. If the death eaters don't move soon, I may be forced to resign. People can only swallow so much with no evidence." Percy sat down with a look of distress on his face.

"Victor and I have been trying to build a stronger relationship with our former schools. Since Madam Maxine is the headmistress at Beuaxbatons, and because of Victor's fame as the great seeker, we have been very successful. We have organized an inter-school quidditch tournament between the three schools for the first half of the year, and also a  dueling tournament for the second half of the year. I believe it will force the students to build some kind of alliance with each other." Fleur spoke for both herself and Victor. 

"I will be speaking with all of you directly that I have not spoken with already soon." Professor McGonagall spoke as always very briefly yet somehow very specifically. Her few words brought satisfied looks to some peoples faces and very confused looks to most everyone else. 

"I have been working on building up an abundance of invisibility and healing potions for our use once we start offensive tactics." Snape spoke icily and just as abruptly as Magongall. 

"I have been working on trying to get the creatures from the forbidden forest on our side. With an old charm that allows me to be able to speak with them for short periods of time, I have a good number of them almost persuaded to protect the castle. Though I still don't think that the castle is in any danger. Voldermort wouldn't dare attack it. Especially so soon." Lupin explained. 

"Remus, as I have told you many times, you can never be to cautions in times like these." Dumbledore said in his tone that seemed to always make everyone agree with him. This got many enthusiastic comments from "Mad-Eye" at the other end of the table. And Moody's comments brought a couple of jokes that Sirius couldn't hold in to himself. Remus, because he was sitting right next to Sirius, was the only one to hear them and just shook his head at his old friend and sat down. 

"I didn't know any charm like that existed."  Percy chimed in.

"It took much researching and loads of practice. Plus it was much easier for me thanks to my _unique _connection with animals." Remus quickly answered before anyone could ask him to teach them.

"I too have been researching an ancient charm." Sirius began.

"Who would have guessed? Sirius Black in a library." It was Remus's turn for the sarcastic remark. Although Remus can be serious at times, he still has a lot of Marauder left in him. 

"I have found the charm now I am just putting it to work. It will be sort of a dark mark only different. It will be a ring with a phoenix on it that will work like the dark mark on death eaters. If anyone of us is in trouble, all we have to do is touch a wand tip to it, and everyone's ring will begin to glow and slightly shake. Then when you see your ring do that, touch the bottom of your wand to the top of the ring, and you will be transported to whoever is in trouble." Sirius continued as if he never heard Remus's comment. 

"Brilliant! How did you ever come up with such a thing?" McGonagall asked with a look of pure amazement and admiration on her face. Everyone in the room shared similar looks. Even Snape was having a hard time keeping his permanent glare that instantly hardened the minute any Marauder (or Gryffindor for that matter) opened their mouth. Everyone was always amazed at what Sirius could accomplish when he put his mind to it and stop joking. 

"Well the rings were all brewed in a special potion that I researched. That part bonds them so that they will always know where the others are. Then I put a complicated type of appiration charm on them so that they could do the transporting part. Now all I have to do is get them to recognize when one is touched so they glow and vibrate. That will be the easy part so I left that for last." Sirius amazed everyone with his explanation.  

"I always said that you, Remus, and James," everyone's face slightly dropped, especially Harry's' "could have been three of the brightest students Hogworts ever turned out if you would have put more work into your studies then into your pranks." Dumbledore commented. Everyone ignored the obvious absence of Peter's name when Dumbledore spoke of the Marauders.

"Yeah but if we focused on our studies so much, when would we have found time to harass the Slytherines?" Sirius was back in his joking mood. Everyone at the table besides Snape chuckled. Snape's brief approval of Sirius's work was replaced quickly with anger at his reminiscing of the jokes that were usually aimed at him. Hagrid stood up in an attempt to break the glares now being passed between Sirius and Snape. 

"Olympe and I have been talkin' to the giants. It worked! A whole group of them, 20 or 30 in all, have agreed to come on the grounds. Since we got them, it shouldn't be hard to get the others to be on our side, even if they don't come to the grounds. They'll be staying in the forest o'course." Hagrid quickly finished to relive some of the very worried looks around the table. As this accounted for everyone except the two new comers, Harry and Patrick, Dumbledore stood up to address the table once again. 

"Very good everyone. With some fast work we may be able to get a strong hold of the situation before it gets out of control. The only thing that worries me is that Voldermort hasn't made his move yet. I believe this to mean that he will be gathering up large forces, to make a big, sudden strike. This could be good and bad. Bad for the obvious reasons, and good because it will make our job of getting spy's into their ranks easier. Now that will be all for today. I will be in contact with you all in a day or two to set up a meeting which will probably be held at the end of this week. Harry, Minerva, Patrick, if you could all stay back please." And with that the room emptied with everyone going their own ways. 

A/N: Okay I know this was short but I wanted to get this one out quick. If you think this is boring just hang in there, there is lots of action to come soon. I will try to get the third chapter out before this coming Tuesday because I will be going on a week long vacation and won't be able to post while I'm away. Who knows? Maybe I'll get real ambitious and get two more chapters up before I go away. Probably depends on the number of reviews I get to decide how motivated I am to get the chapters out quick. So REVIEW!!!


	3. Animigi

A/N: I know the last two chapters are really short but I have had a change of plans and am literally leaving for the airport in ten minutes. But I promised a chapter before a left so here goes. Don't worry next chapter will be nice and long. I will be planning it my whole trip. Also I'm e-mailing everyone who reviewed right now but I don't have time to thank you all individually in this chapter. I'm so sorry but there was a last minute change and there is nothing I can do about it. As I'm doing this I'm being yelled at to get in the car so we can leave. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and I will reply to everyone next chapter. Remember, expect an action filled, very eventful, HUGE chapter on the 21st or 22cd this month.

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

After a brief lunch with the two professors and the stranger, Harry, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Patrick all got up from where they were sitting in Dumbledore's office and headed down to the Great Hall. Harry was amazed at how empty the castle felt during the summer. Even lots of the paintings were empty. Every once in a while you would see that the occupants of four or five empty frames had all gathered in one frame at the end of the hall and were talking and joking merrily. Before Harry knew it he was walking into an empty Great Hall. All the tables were gone except a smaller version of the Head Table at the front of the hall. "Harry today you will be starting your training. Patrick or myself will be assisting you in the majority of your training with some assistants from the Professors and other Order members when we get to their area of expertise. Professor McGonagall will be helping all the Order members in becoming animigi." Dumbledore stopped explaining as the doors to the Great Hall were pushed open and two of Harry's favorite people were in the doorway. 

"Sirius, Professor!" Harry yelled as he went to greet his godfather and former professor.

"Please, Harry call me Remus, I'm not your professor anymore." 

"Ah, we haven't started yet right on time as usual. Harry because of Sirius and Remus's dealing with animigi, they will be helping you also. I believe you two have already brewed the potion correct?" Dumbledore asked. As an answer Remus pulled a vial out with a blue looking substance in it. 

"We have a lot more with this came from too. By the end of the week the rest should be ready for the whole order." Sirius told them.

"The whole Order is becoming animigi? But I thought that took ages to do?" Harry asked.

"Usually it does. But a good majority of the time it takes a normal witch or wizard to become one is spent making this potion. Ever since the third task me and Sirius have been making it so that the Order wouldn't all have to make it by themselves. It will be a great help to have us all be able to turn into animals." Remus answered.

"The other parts of becoming an animigi are some transfigurations and charms. Usually it's very dangerous to do on yourself, and almost impossible to do on someone else, but between Mr. English, Professor McGonagall, myself, Remus, and Sirius, we can handle doing it on you. The hardest thing you will have to worry about is learning to get used to your animal form."  Dumbledore told Harry. 

"So Harry, if you hurry up and drink this we will be able to cast the charm to see what type of animal you will be." Remus handed Harry the bottle and he took it in one quick gulp. It tasted disgusting at first but then he got a very tingly feeling all throughout his body. As it began to wear off, he looked around to see everyone had their wands out. "Are you ready Harry?" Remus asked. Harry didn't know what he was supposed to be ready for but he shook his head and all five adults started mumbling under there breath and then all at once pointed their wands at him.  Without warning a ray of purple light flew out of their wands and simultaneously hit Harry. Seconds later a very impressive looking shadow of an eagle burst from Harry and flew around the room for a few seconds before heading strait back for Harry and disappeared into his chest. 

"That Harry, is an impressive animigi. And a quite useful one too. Having an animigi form that can move swiftly and blend in easily is a very good thing to have." The mystery man Dumbledore called Patrick spoke. 

"Is it done? How do I change to that now? Does it hurt?" A million questions all tried to escape Harry at once and Dumbledore held a silencing hand. 

"It is not done. Now that we know what your form is, we have to concentrate on that in our mind and use some very advanced transfiguration to get you to truly be an animigi. Now Harry, this is the dangerous part. After we perform the spell, you will become that shadow form you just saw. It is important not to panic, because if you panic you may get stuck halfway through the transfiguration. You will keep you mind when you transform. Just fly a few feet in the air, land on the ground, and think to yourself that you want to be human again. Then if all goes well there will be a pop, and you will return to normal. So just relax and we will start the transfiguration." Dumbledore spoke softly and calmly. They all began to look at Harry with their wands out, but no one was mumbling. Then all of a sudden, they turned their wands on McGonagall, and bright green burst out of their wands and slammed into the tip of hers. This was unexpected to Harry but he remained calm and just waited. McGonagall began to look at Harry with more concentration than ever and red shot out of her wand and flew into Harry. Again Harry felt the tingly feeling only this time he found himself off the ground. He waved his arms around, well his wings, and then let himself fall forward. With a thump he hit the ground and slammed his beak. He regained his composure and thought about being human again. He felt his body regain its regular size and then looked around at all the proud faces. 

"You did it!" Sirius yelled and gave him a hug. "How's it feel?" 

"Weird. I don't really know how to move around." 

"That's what you'll have to practice. One day you will really need that skill for serious reasons, and then is not the time to try and figure out how to fly. Now I know you will want to explore your new talent, and I know that telling you to only use it in life or death situations would be a waste of breath, but I must insist that for now only the people in this room, and soon the people of the Order, know about this. I daresay that if you want to further explore your talent with someone, that your godfather will be more than happy to do that with you." Dumbledore said.

"You can't even imagine all the fun you can have with the Slytherines. They have no idea you are a animal, and you can drive them crazy!" Sirius exclaimed. Everyone laughed and even Professor McGonagall couldn't muster a truly disapproving frown. 

A/N: Review


	4. SIRIUS!

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

The next few days Harry spent flying around his new house by himself. This was good for two reasons; one he was beginning to master his animigi form; and two he was learning his way around his castle. He would have really liked for Sirius to be there while he explored his talent but he was away on some business for Dumbledore and would not be back until the end of the week. But he did promise Harry that he would teach him all the secret passages of Potter Palace when he got back. He even said that if he had time maybe the two of them and Moony could make a map like they have of Hogworts! But for now Harry was ordered to stay inside the castle. It was supposed to look like no one was there still so he could not even explore the grounds. When Sirius got back he would be able to explore the grounds but only with Sirius, only at night, and only in his animigi form. So Harry was left alone with only his wizards radio (which he had borrowed from Remus), Hedwig (who enjoyed flying around with her master), the house elves (who wouldn't dare strike up a conversation with their master and only spoke few words when they were addressed), and the Daily Prophet he had subscribed to. Just then a house elf appeared out of thin air (a talent of theirs) and told Harry that someone was at the gates and wished to speak to Harry. Even though the only people that new Harry was there were Dumbledore, Moody, Mrs. Figg, Sirius, and Remus, Harry was instructed to take no chances. He grabbed his invisibility cloak, his wand, and his Firebolt, all of which Dumbledore had instructed him to use if he went out to answer the door incase it was a Death Eater or some other dark wizard. As he flew out he saw a very poor looking Sirius, but Harry fought the urge to rip off his cloak and land at the gates. Harry was waiting to see the special signal they had talked about. Just as Sirius's hand went up and he wiped his face with his hand, Harry landed inches in front of him ripped off just the hood of his cloak and quickly invited Sirius in. Sirius didn't even exchange pleasantries, which is very odd for him, so Harry shot off on his Firebolt right behind him. Neither of them spoke until they were inside the castle. Then all Sirius was able to croak out before he fell to the ground was something that sounded remotely like, "Dumbledore." At that one word Harry was off. He darted to the appiration wards and did all the commands as if they were second nature. Next thing he new he was standing in front of a very surprised looking headmaster. 

"Sir, Sirius turned up at my door and all he was able to do was mumble your name. He looks like he needs help. He's fainted right inside the Entrance Doors." At this Dumbledore sprang into action and again the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice showed Harry why he was in charge of the Order. He drew his wand out of his robes and pointed it at his desk. A pile of parchment, ink, and a quill appeared there. He spoke quickly and clearly,

"Madam Pomfrey is staying in the Hospital Wing. Tell her you do not have time to explain but that I am bringing Sirius Black to her to treat. Tell her that she must treat him the second I bring him in and ask no questions while doing so. Let her know I shall inform her of anything she would like to know on the subject after everything is taken care of. Then come back up here as quickly as possible. Write a quick one line letter to everyone in the Order telling them to come here as quickly as possible. Write a tiny 'OoP' in the bottom left hand corner of each letter, seal them with a Hogworts seal; that's right there on my desk," he quickly waved his hand to the corner, "and give them all to Fawkes. Tell him it is Order business and he must deliver them as fast as he can. If I have not returned to give you further instructions by then, go and wait in the Order room. The password to this office is 'T.R.W.F.' and just place your hand on the wall right behind where I sit to get into the Order room. Close the door once you get in. Transform into your animigi form until someone from the Order gets there. Then transform back, tell them about you being an animigi if they do not already know and explain to them everything you know about this situation." With that he placed his wand on the loin and said "Potter Palace" and vanished without another word. Not wasting any time Harry shot off towards the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey seemed flabbergasted enough at seeing a student at Hogworts during the summer, not to mention the story that student was telling. But before she could ask any questions Harry darted off to follow the rest of Dumbledore's instructions. After that Harry went into the Order room and waited. This was the worst part. Not being able to do anything and not knowing what was going on. But he changed into an eagle and perched himself on the back of his chair waiting for another Order member to show up. Luckily Lupin was the first one in the Order room so Harry didn't have to explain the animigi thing. Harry quickly transformed back to his human form and Lupin looked startled.

"What happened? What was that letter all about? Where's Dumbledore?" Remus yelled out all at once.

"Sirius showed up at my house and told me to get Dumbledore then fainted. I came here and told him and he told me to write letters to all of the order people. He should be here in a little bit." Soon after that all the Order members began to file into the room and Harry was impressed by their promptness. He relayed the story to all of them until all 17 Order members were in the room waiting for Dumbledore (and hopefully Sirius). A half an hour later Dumbledore walked into the room alone, and the whole room silenced. All eyes were on Dumbledore and all ears were perked. 

"The dementors have joined ranks with Voldermort." This statement put a look of fear on every face in the room. "Sirius saw them attacking a muggle village. He said there was not enough time to contact all of us so he tried to take them all on himself. He managed to fight them away for a short period of time until Hit wizards showed up. Luckily one of the first to the scene was a good friend of mine and new of Sirius's innocence. He helped Sirius get out of the area of the dementors, but they still drained him of most of his energy. No need to worry in a day or two he will be up and walking, and in about a week he will have his full amount of energy back." 

"How bad was the attack?" Moody barked from where he was standing in the corner of the room.

"It was a big neighborhood. And there were almost a thousand dementors." Dumbledore started but was interrupted. 

"Yes but everyone has had their memory modified and all that right?" McGonagall asked. Dumbledore shook his head and the face of fear got worse on everyone.

"They do not need their memories modified. 1005 people suffered the dementors kiss. 3 elderly people died of an apparent heart attack. No one that was in the area is still alive." Dumbledore answered. "Our time of preparation is over. It is now time to act. Our spies need to double their reports. Someone needs to find a way to get into the Death Eaters inner circle.  Arabella, Moody, Mundungus, how is that coming along?"

"I have been able to get into the ranks. But only his inner circle knows what animals and how many death eaters are with them. He never even told us about the dementor attacks. And when he does tell about the attacks, I have heard its only minutes before you actually have to go. I've been going in disguise of course, but what am I supposed to do if we all have a battle?" Arabella asked.

"You created that personality, all you have to do is kill it before Voldermort does. Now however I must go see Sirius. It is imperative that we have those rings now more than every. If we had had them that attack may not have been so bad. I thank you all for coming now you can go back to your families. Oh and please, I won't tell you not to tell your families because I know it would do no good, but I ask to you to see to it that the details of the attack are not told to anyone outside of your houses. Only that there was a bad attack ordered by Voldermort on a Muggle community. I'm sure it will be on the news and in the papers in no time." At those last words of Dumbledore everyone left. Harry was sitting listening to the radio when he heard a voice on the box that haunts his dreams. Voldermort had made it on the radio. He was about to address the whole wizardry community. 

"Now that I have everyone in the wizardry worlds attention, I have some messages to send. First to the Order of the Phoenix…"

A/N: I know my first cliff hanger. Well I was going to write more but ff.net is closing down for a couple days and I wanted to get this up first. So again please forgive the shortness (I can't be blamed this time, I'm not shutting the site down) and for the fact that there are no thank you's. I do appreciate the reviews and thank everyone in my e-mails to them. So if you are mad at me for the shortness of the chapters, next chapter will make up for it. I don't know the size it will be, but it will surely be a good one. Voldermorts messages will give you chills. REWVIEW!!


	5. Voldermorts Threats

A/N: Here are my replies to all the reviews from chapters 2-4.

Chapter 2 Reviews: 

Wolfmoon: Now I have written more. Pretty much everyone agrees with you about longer chapters and longer waits. Thanks.  

RockKing69: I know chapter two was boring I'm sorry but it needed to be done. I hope this one was better. Patrick is doing some of Harry's training but even though his magical ability will go past Hermione, his general knowledge won't. He will probably know more painful curses and stuff like that that has to do with dueling but Hermione will always be the bookworm know-it-all in the group. Thanks.

Stewart: thank you I think the action is going to heat up in chapters to come. Yes I did try to stay away from writing so much to his friends. I think this is more believable too. Thanks.

Wolfmoon: Two reviews for one chapter! HAHA you're the best. I think you should be able to review signed in as many times as you want to. Thanks for all the support. 

Ace: Thanks for the input. I think so too but it looks like most people disagree with us. Thanks for the review.

Chapter 3 Reviews:

Fairymagic689: thanks for the encouragement. Soon you will find out much, much more about Gordics Hollow and the Order of the Phoenix. Keep reading and I promise you will find out everything you want to know. If not then leave it in the review and I will answer it in the next chapter.

Wolfmoon: Thank you. I'm looking forward to more reviews just as much as you are looking for new chapters. Thanks.

Fairymagic689: wow 2 reviews for one chapter thanks!! Hope you like this one. 

Chapter 4 Reviews: 

Katy: thank you. I tried to hurry but I'm sorry this took so long. Thanks.

Moonlight: Again I apologize for the wait. Please keep reviewing.

Wolfmoon: you review every chapter and send me e-mails. YOU"RE AWESOME! Thank you.

 And the person who didn't leave a name: thank you for the review I hope you liked it. I hope you like this one too.

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

"…you have all gathered to late. My ranks have swelled to ten times anything you can hope to get. My next message is to all of the wizardry world. I am offering my hand to you. This is not something I do more than once. I will take over all of the wizardry world, it is only a matter of time. I am now asking you to ranks. If you refuse to join me, you will die. Your only hope of survival is to come with me now. Now I have some more personal messages, first of which going out to Harry Potter. Potter, you are young so I will take pity on you. I will give you a choice. If you join me now, I will give you powers beyond your belief. You will be second only to me and together we will be unstoppable. Decline my offer and I will kill you. My next message is for Dumbledore. By the time the boy has enough power to even _look _for the staff, I will have already found it and learned to harness its powers. There is no hope. Turn yourself in to me and I will consider letting you die an almost painless death. Reject this request and I will torture you beyond anything you can imagine. For tens of years after I capture you I will torture you every day just barley keeping you alive. You will scream for me to put you out of your misery every waking moment. You will beg for forgiveness for all of the years you have defied me. And through all that my torture will continue. It will keep going until the day I get tired of it, and I promise you that day is a long way away. Finally I leave you Dumbledore, with one final statement; You can't keep your eye on him all the time. Eventually your guard will slip and I will reach out and steal him from where you and he think he is most safe. Then I will put him through even more pain then I will you. My last message is to Patrick English. You too, like Dumbledore, have had to many times to join me. Your refusals have irritated me. I no longer offer you a place in my army. You I do not even offer the chance to surrender and face a painless death. You _will _be captured and you _will _be tortured. And finally here's something for you to think about. You may believe your presence is more required here in Britain rather than in America, but you are sorely mistaken. You left your students with no protection. In your absence there is nothing and no one to stop me from taking over the school and enslaving the students. With these announcements I will now leave you all to make your decisions. I wish you all a _very_ goodnight."

As the radio sound died out Harry found himself for the second time that night running to the apparition wards. Again Harry found himself popping up in front of the headmaster but this time Dumbledore didn't look nearly as surprised. 

"Go to the Order room I assume everyone else will be here shortly. I must go and get Sirius from the hospital wing."

"No need, sir." Sirius's voice came as the door to Dumbledore's office opened and Sirius limped in. "The flames in the fire went all funny colors and then Voldermorts voice came from them. He must have rigged every fire in the wizardry world."

"And radio. Mine was sitting next to me and just turned on by itself." Remus's voice came as he too stepped into the office. They all went into the Order room for the second time that night and the room began to fill up. Soon everyone was there and again they all turned their attention to Dumbledore. 

"Voldermort has asked all wizards to join him and if I am correct, many of them will. The emotion of fear far outweighs good judgment in times like these to many people. Arabella, Moody, and Mundungus, I want you all to pull back." Dumbledore ordered. 

"WHAT!? WE'RE SO CLOSE! I'm almost in there!" Mrs. Figg protested. 

"Voldermort wants us to put spies in there." Dumbledore started.

"Why would he want that?" Moody demanded.

"I don't know. But he has used many other methods of collecting supporters but he has done it quietly and secretly so we don't know about it. When he asked the wizardry world to join him he was counting on us sending spies in. I don't know why, but I know that's it. Pull back." Dumbledore commanded. "As for the rest of you, I need you to work twice as hard. Sirius, when will those rings be ready?"

"Well, I would have had them today but I have taken your advice. They will be invisible now to everyone except the ones wearing them. This will make it so that you are not identifiable on the street. So they will be ready tomorrow night if I work real hard." Sirius answered.

"Very well do that. Everyone you may leave. Sirius, Remus, Patrick, Harry, please stay here." Dumbledore said the last bit a little more quietly. After everyone filed out of the room the five left and went into Dumbledore's office. "Patrick am I right in assuming that you know of the staff Voldermort spoke of?" Patrick nodded in agreement. "Good. Sirius, Remus, and Harry, am I right in assuming that you would like to know what Voldermort was talking about?" This time Harry, Sirius, and Remus nodded in agreement. "Very well then perhaps a bit of a history lesson to start off. Wizards are very powerful human beings. Their magical potential is far beyond any other being known to the average man. But there is one particular species of human that is not known to man. Magicians are the most powerful human beings known to anyone. Back in the early centuries of magic, Magicians and Wizards lived in harmony. Everyone knew that Magicians magic went far beyond anything a wizard could do. If you ever needed protection, you went to see a Magician. They could set up protection charms that one-hundred wizards could not break. There was one other major difference between wizards and magicians. No magician, in all of history, has ever gone bad. Their souls are pure and they never practice dark magic to do harm to anyone that is good. But with all the good things about Magicians, they have one fault; their magic is complicated and takes sometimes minuets to complete a difficult spell. This means that the poorest dueler of a wizard could beat pretty much any Magician in a duel. Salazar Slytherin realized this and decided to use it to his advantage. Being as cunning as he was he was able to convince a magician to make a staff for him. A staff is what magicians use instead of wands. They have unlimited power. You do not even need words to use them you just have to think about what you want to happen, point it, and then it will happen. Normally it takes minutes for things to happen as I said but Salazar found a way around that. He did this so he could still duel. He put his wand inside the staff, so it would have the quick outcome of a wand, and the power of a staff. Gordic Gryffindor learned about what was going on so he tipped off the magician. But it was to late. The staff had been made. With Salazar's wand in the staff, anyone of his heir's could use it. A staff can never be destroyed so that was out of the question. The king magician went to consult Merlin. Between the two of them they made a wand identical to Merlin's and put it in the staff. Merlin had no kin so it could not be his heir that took the power. A couple years later Merlin made this prediction." At this point Dumbledore went into his desk and retrieved a very battered looking piece of parchment. He handed it to Harry and Sirius and they read it together. It read: 

It will be many centuries before the light side will have any use of the staff. The scared bird  will put his life in the hands of a dog, a wolf, Gordic's heir, and a mysterious stranger. If this companionship of five does not find the staff before the snake, the world will plunge into darkness. Gods speed to them.

"For years I have been trying to find out who the companionship of five is. I will admit to you all now that I am indeed Gordic's heir. I was looking for three animals for some 50 years until the other day Harry. When I saw you turn into an eagle for your animigi all the pieces fell into place. The bird was you Harry. The dog was Sirius, and the wolf was Remus. And an old friend of mine but a mysterious stranger to most in these parts, was you Patrick. The five of us need to find the staff. The scared bird is the one destined to take it. Now Harry, I must warn you, the temptation  to wield the staff's power will be great. You must fight it. Only as a fully grown wizard will you be able to conquer  its power. Even then I recommend that you do not use it unless absolutely necessary. With that type of power will come a desire to do bad things to a wizard, because wizards are not supposed to use them. It would take every waking moment of your life to fight off the urge to do bad things. However we must find it. You, Harry, will be the only one who is able to touch it, but we will all give everything we can to keep it safe for you. Within the week we must set off to find it. Voldermort will send someone to do it for him no doubt, but whoever he sends will not be able to touch it. Only the chosen one and the heir of Salazar can touch it. Now we all need our rest and Sirius you need to get to work on those rings, so lets all be off." With that they all left and went to their houses. None of them got much sleep that night. It was spent rolling around thinking of the journey they would soon embark on by all.

A/N: So how was that? Sorry it took so long I went on two vacations and have not had much time. Don't worry Dumbledore won't find all kinds of new powers. I don't even really know why I put he was Gryffindor's heir. And if they get the staff (I haven't decided yet) Harry will not learn to use its powers until at least he is out of Hogworts (which is a long way away). I will be finishing this story when he is done with his fifth year (which as you can tell is a far way away because he hasn't even started it yet) then going on to his sixth year and seventh. I may do his first year out of Hogworts too but that is at least two years down the road if I decide to. Sorry about the wait but its up now so REVIEW!! Next chapter will be a trip to Diagon Ally and more but I'm not sure what else besides that. 


	6. An Interesting Trip to Diagon Alley

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

A/N: I know this hasn't been 'updated in ages' as Wolfmoon put it and I am so sorry for that. I have been real busy with sports and school but I will try to get chapters up on a regular basis from now on. I also realize this chapter isn't one of my longest but you have to understand that I am home sick and couldn't keep writing for much longer. I got as much done as I could and hope that my long absence hasn't driven away my reviewers. 

Now the Thank You's:

**Usako3000: you reviewed chapter five twice! You're awesome! You always have great input and help my story improve. Thanks for the review.**

**Sirius B: thanks for the review. I can't wait to see if Voldermort will keep his promises either. I haven't decided. What do you think? Should he keep all of them? Some of them? Or none of them? I'll appreciate your opinion.**

**Moonlight: thanks for the review. I hope you like this one too!**

**RockKing69: I do think that a phoenix is classed as a bird but I thought that it would be better if Harry was something that can blend in. A very rare magical creature like a phoenix would be tough to blend in as. Thanks for your input! I hope you like this chapter.**

**Wolfmoon: Wolfmoon what can I say. You are one of the big reasons I have kept this story going. Your e-mail was just the words I needed to get writing again. You're great! Keep writing and reviewing please!**

The next morning Harry, Patrick, Dumbledore, Remus, and Sirius (in his dog form) were all going to Diagon Alley to get things that would be needed for their journey and Harry was going to pick up some of his Hogworts things while he was there. As they all stepped out of the fire place in the Leaky Cauldron all the eyes in the room were fixed on them. They walked to the back of the pub and through the portal to Diagon Alley. "Remus, I believe you have your things to get, and I have to get some things for Sirius, so Patrick you stay with Harry and we will meet back here in about a half an hour." Everyone agreed and went off their separate ways.

"All right, we're going to need to get some stuff for the order so I have to go to the order's vault, and Albus told me you were going to pick up some school supplies while you were here so you need to go to your vault as well. Let's save some time and go separately, Gringotts is a pretty safe place so we will go to our vaults and meet on the steps outside in five minutes okay?" Patrick said.

"The order has its own vault? Where does it get its money?" Harry asked. Although this man was a stranger Harry felt at ease with him.

"Mostly donations. Last time the order was up the Ministry donated lots of money. Plus there are a lot of private donators as well." Patrick answered and then handed Harry his key so they both found a goblin and went to their vaults. Harry got his money and headed outside to wait for Patrick. After waiting a couple minutes he felt something grab his arm. Turning around and expecting to see Patrick Harry was shocked to see Lucius Malfoy. 

"Wandering along all by ourselves our we? Dumbledore won't be to happy to hear this will he?" Malfoy asked mockingly. 

"What do you want Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Well I was just coming to go to the bank, but now I think I'll bring back something much better to the Dark Lord. "

"Are you going to try to escape here with me? You wouldn't make it ten feet  before someone stopped you." Harry said not believing it even as he said it.

"Don't be stupid boy. No one here can stop me from taking you. I hope you thought real hard about what the Dark Lord said to you the other night because you are going to have to make that decision a lot sooner than you expected now." Malfoy threatened. 

"Let go of him right now or you will be sorry Malfoy." Someone said from behind them.

"What are you doing here Patrick?" Malfoy sounded scared as he addressed Patrick who had just came out of Gringotts.

"I said let him go." Patrick demanded again ignoring Malfoy's question. What happened next happened so fast that Harry barely knew what was going on. Malfoy drew his wand, pointed it at Patrick and shouted "Crucio". As the word was escaping Malfoy's mouth Harry acted out of instinct and pushed Malfoy's arm to the side. The curse hit a bystander and the woman fell to the ground screaming and shaking in pain. Patrick took two swift steps forward, drew a sword from seemingly no where, and with one movement sliced his arm clean off. Malfoy fell to the ground in pain. From his elbow down had just been cut off. Patrick drew a wand, put Malfoy under the full body bind curse and shot ropes to tie him up then grabbed Harry and pulled him into a nearby shop. "Transform here and fly into that tree there," he pointed to a tree in an alley. Only come out of the tree when you see me, Dumbledore, Sirius, and Remus walk into the alley. Still don't go back to a human. Make sure we're alone and fly strait onto Dumbledore's shoulder." With that he ran off into the streets no doubt looking for Dumbledore and the rest. Harry listened to Patrick's instructions and flew into the tree in the alley. 


	7. Patrick's Strange History and a Letter F...

A/N: All right I hope this one came out a little quicker but you will have to wait even shorter time for the next one. I'm trying to be more dedicated to updating this. Also I think this one was a little bit longer. I hope you like! Please Review!!

Thank You's: 

Moonlight: Thank you for your review. I really appreciate the input. Please keep reviewing.

RockKing69: I'm not sure what's going to happen to Malfoy. I do know that Voldermort gave Wormtail a fake arm because he lost his helping Voldermort, and I don't think that Voldie will be too happy that Malfoy had Harry Potter in his grasp and let him slip away. Maybe there will be a little punishment in store for Malfoy in later chapters? Thanks for the review.

WolfMoon: Thanks for the review. I am almost done with Year Five of your story and IT IS GREAT! Everyone should read it! Keep reviewing and I look forward to hearing from you again to know what you think about this.

Blank:  I thought the arm getting cut off was a nice touch too. Thanks for the review. If you leave your e-mail I can e-mail you when new chapters come out.  

Harry POTTER AND THE RETURN OF THE DARK LORD

All day long reporters had been trying to find a way into Hogworts to ask Dumbledore questions. Ministry Law Enforces were sent out to Private Drive when a reporter cursed Vernon Dursley after punched him in the face. The curse was reversed, all the Dursley's memory's were modified, and the reporters were told to stay away from them. The bad thing was that now everyone knew Harry was not with his aunt and uncle. Not that Voldermort could hurt Harry while he was in Gordic's Hollow but all his friends were worried about where he had been this summer. "That's the last of them. Severus went out to speak to them and I don't know what he said but they all left." Dumbledore spoke to the order. 

" Always such a cheery man." Sirius remarked quietly. 

"What's happened to Malfoy, sir?" Harry asked.

"He used an unforgivable curse on a human. He is serving a lifetime sentence in Azkaban." Dumbledore answered. This brought a smile to Harry's face. That is until Moody let his opinion be heard.

"He'll be out by then end of the week. The dementor's know who Voldermorts supporters are. They won't go near him. And they are leaving Azkaban by the end of this week. It's barley a punishment to him."

"I'm afraid Alstor's right." Dumbledore spoke answering the questioning looks Moody was getting from people around him. "However we are gaining support. It won't be long before the Ministry is on our side. For now we are doing all we can." Dumbledore said. "This is the end of the meeting, you may all go home." Patrick, Sirius, Remus, and Harry were all asked to stay after again. "What a said before about us leaving soon was wrong. I shouldn't have said it. None of us are ready. Patrick, I believe we should make a trip to your village for a bit of training before we go. Which won't be at least until Christmas break." All but Dumbledore and Patrick looked confused. Patrick just shook his head. "Now the extra support I was talking about was the APA." Dumbledore began but Harry interrupted. 

"What's the APA sir?" Harry asked.

"The Auror Protection Agency. They are the best protection the Wizardry World has to offer. They work separately from the other Auror's and from the Ministry, therefore they can put their services wherever they believe they are needed most. After everyone knows they are on our side, the Auror's will want to come, and if the Auror's threaten to separate themselves from the Ministry, the Ministry will have no choice but to come to our side. Now some of the agents will be coming strait into battle with us but most of them will just be involved in protection because that is what they are best at. They will be protecting the order's family's, the Hogworts grounds, Diagon Alley, and some other places. Now Harry, there will be five agents assigned just to you. They will follow you everywhere once school starts. I ask you not to give them any trouble. They will not interfere with your social life, I have their word on that. But if they believe you are in any personal danger, they will step in." Dumbledore explained. 

"Harry trust me these people know what their doing. They are the best." Sirius said with a smile. "I should know, I was one after all. James was too."  Harry smiled at this. He liked to know anything about his parents, he would have to remember to ask Sirius about some other stories. 

"I didn't want to do this to you Harry, but what happened in Diagon Alley showed me that you are in danger. If Patrick had been a second later who knows where you would be right now." 

"It's ok, sir, I understand." Harry told Dumbledore. He certainly didn't like it at all, but he knew Dumbledore was only doing what was best. 

"That's all for now. You will meet your agents sometime next week Harry. But they will not follow you around until the school year starts." Dumbledore finished up the meeting with that. 

"Sir?" Harry began.

"Don't call me that when we're not in school Harry. It makes me feel even older than I am."

"Um, ok professor-" Harry started again.

"You can call me Albus, Harry." Dumbledore told him. Everyone in the room gave me a little laugh. 

"Ok. Well how about everyone comes back to my house for diner. I want to hear some stories." Early that day Harry and Dumbledore decided it was best if Sirius, Remus, and Patrick were allowed to come back and forth to his castle too. Since they would all be working on that project together and they would probably spend many late nights what they really started to prepare for it. So they all went back to Harry's house were dinner was waiting for them. The house elves cooked a very big chicken with mashed potatoes and stuffing on the side. Sirius and Remus told stories about the old days, with a little help from Dumbledore about how the Marauder's were from the teachers point of view. All of them were laughing for a very long time until everything got serious when Harry asked a question about Patrick. Harry had noticed that Patrick was about Remus and Sirius's age and didn't know why he wasn't telling stories of his days at Hogworts too. The second the question came out of Harry's mouth everyone stopped laughing.

"Well I guess none of you know the true story of me. Although Albus knows it slightly more than the rest of you. No one in the order knows my real story. But I guess you guys will have to find out so I should just tell you now." Dumbledore shook his head encouragingly at Patrick. "You see, I didn't go to Hogworts."

"Well what school did you go to?" Harry asked.

"I didn't go to any magical school Harry. I didn't go to a school for witchcraft and wizardry because I am not a wizard. I am a Knight." 

"Like from the Middle Ages?" Harry asked.

"Sort of. But not really. Not many wizards know about the Knights anymore, but once Knights and wizards lived together. Knights were not magical so after a while wizards began to look down on them. There was a group much like the Death Eaters that thought that Knights were not fit to live with wizards because they were not magical. They thought we were the same as muggles. But we weren't. We lived side by side with wizards until this group forced us into exile. We hid in small villages. Soon we became completely separated from wizards and we drifted completely out of their memory. Your average wizard would not be able to tell you about knights if you asked them now. But we are very different than muggles. We did not want to live the muggles and the wizards did not want us to live with them so we stayed to ourselves. We did not advance like the muggles. Knights still live the same lifestyle as the did in the Middle Ages. We live in villages separated from muggles and wizards. We are our own people." 

"But you said you guys weren't magical. But I saw you pull your wand and do spells on Malfoy." Harry interrupted.

"Ah, and there you are right. You see, I'm not your average Knight. I am the true king of all the Knights in Ireland. Ireland and were most Knights live."

"Then what are you doing here if you are their king?" Harry asked again.

"Well I guess my story begins when Voldermort last came to power. Somehow he learned about the Knights and thought we would be a valuable ally. You see Harry, even though we don't know magic we can do a lot of things in battle that wizards can't. We use the cross bow, the bow and arrow, and as you saw me use, the sword better than any wizard you can find anywhere. Now you may not think that is very useful, but with three arrows I could cut both a dragons wings so it couldn't fly after me, and I could put one in its throat so that it couldn't breath fire. Now if you can find a wizard who can do that, I would like to see him. Many other magical beasts that can not be harmed with magic I could kill with no problem. Another example is that I could kill, not just fend off with a spell, but kill a dementor with my arrows or my sword. Voldermort thought this was useful and went to my father. My father at the time was the king of the Irish Knights. He of course refused to help Voldermort so Voldermort thought that if he kidnapped me that it would change my father's mind. He kidnapped me when I was eight years old.  For seven years after that he tortured me everyday, telling me to convince my father to join his side. For seven years I refused him every day. The torturing became worse and worse until I couldn't handle it anymore. When Death Eaters got bored they would come in and torture me. Finally I got a hold of Death Eaters sword once when most of them were gone at some attack. I was fifteen years old that night, I had not yet started my training before I was kidnapped, but since I was the heir of the king of the Knights it was in my blood to know how to use weapons. I was a natural warrior. Once I got a hold of the sword I escaped. I killed seventeen Death Eaters that night. That is why Voldermort hates me so much. I heard that a man named Albus Dumbledore was beginning to start a revolt against Voldermort so I found him. I told Dumbledore my story and he knew parts of the history of the Knights even better than I did. Apparently the heir's to the throne of the knights were able to learn magic. It had been hundreds of years since a Knight king had learned magic because we were separated from wizards and therefore my ancestors must have forgotten that little fact." 

"Once you escaped how come you didn't go back to the Knights?" Sirius asked.

"I didn't know how to get there. And besides, I had such hatred in my heart that I wanted nothing more to kill Voldermort and his Death Eaters for the pain they put me through." Patrick answered.

"Why didn't you go back to them after Voldermort's first fall?" Remus asked. 

"By then they thought I was dead. And besides, if they knew I was alive they would have thought I was a trader for slipping into the wizardry world. So that's it. That's why I didn't go to a magical school, that's why I drew my sword first against Malfoy, it's in my blood to be more comfortable with a sword. And now, sometime this year, I am supposed to go back to my kingdom and get you guys the training that any Knight would get. Because you will need. Voldermort is going to use many magical animals in this war and lots of them won't be affected by magic. But I will tell you again Albus, it's not going to be as easy to walk in there and get the training as you think it will be. They won't accept me."

"That will be something for another day to worry about. What's this?" An owl flew over to Dumbledore and dropped a letter into his plate. "It's from Severus, he said he has urgent news for us." Dumbledore look confused. "Follow me. Sirius, touch that ring." Earlier that day Sirius gave all of the Order the rings. It had an extra add on, it could tell if it was really urgent like an attack, or if it was just an important meeting. Sirius activated his ring and they all walked to the appiration wards, into Dumbledore's office, and into the order room. In a couple minuets all of the order were there and a beaten looking Snape stood up.

A/N: Well that was my sorry excuse for a cliffhanger. How does everyone like it? Please review!


	8. The Raid on Knockturn Ally

A/N: Wow this one was out quick right? Well quick for me anyway. I also tried to make it longer than I have before. Please try to read and review! Also to all the American's reading this have a Happy Thanksgiving. 

Thank You's: 

Fairymagic: Thank you very much I'm glad you are liking it. And trust me, once Harry gets back to Hogworts (which shouldn't be to long from now) you will learn a lot more about Lily and James. 

Sakura_star-63: How was this one? I tried to make it a little longer. I hope you like it.

WolfMoon: You never miss a chapter. And you got me writing this story again. You're awesome. How's this one? And now on your story I'm done with Year Five (it was great) and on to Year Six. I will probably get all the way up to date on it by the beginning of next week.

RJLL: I did make a change in the was I was writing and I'm glad you noticed. Please keep reviewing I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I've never put a disclaimer before this because everyone knows that any of the things you recognize don't belong to me but now I'd just like to say that I got some of these ideas from the movie Black Hawk Down (which is awesome and everyone should go see it) so if you recognize a line from in there, that is probably where it comes from. 

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

Snape walked over to Dumbledore and whispered something in his ear then went back to his seat and sat down. Dumbledore stood up and began to address the order. "Severus just heard some interesting news while at a Death Eaters meeting. It seems that Voldermort will be holding an urgent meeting tonight with some of his highest ranking Death Eaters. Now I know I said we were not yet ready for offensive tactics, but there will be no dark creatures there, just wizards, so we should be ok. Right now it is 8:24, the meeting starts at 9:00. Our attack will start at 9:15. Now Voldermort will be there but he is not our target. As soon as we make our presence known he will apperate out of there and order his death eaters to fight." Dumbledore said. Everyone in the room had a grave look on their face.

"Why don't we put up anti-appiration wards?" Mr. Weasly asked.

"Well we will be doing that. I will leave that job to Bill and Professor Flitwick. But it takes time. Voldermort will be out of there before we can get the wards up." Dumbledore answered.

"We should be able to get them up in about ten minutes. But no sooner than that. Obviously they can't be permanent, the shortest time we can keep them on is about six hours. And putting temporary ones on will be harder than permanent ones." Bill explained. Professor Flitwick nodded his head in agreement. 

"All right so it's set. Capture as many death eaters as you can. Don't go looking for Voldermort because he won't be there. The Ministry won't be able to get in there until the appiration wards wear off so we want to get out of their first. After Bill and Professor Flitwick get the anti-appiration wards up, I need you two to send up blue sparks. Then I will put up appiration wards up in a little isolated place so that we can get out of there with our prisoners. I will contact the APA and tell them to get some kind of prison ready. I'm not putting these Death Eaters in Azkaban so Voldermort can break them out in two days." Harry now knew by looking at Dumbledore's eyes as he spoke why everyone said he was the only one Voldermort was afraid of last time he was in power. 

"Were is this meeting?" Sirius asked.

"Knockturn Alley." Snape croaked from where he was sitting. He still looked exhausted from the long, quick journey he just had to make to get the Order in time. At these words Sirius's face, along with most of the others around the table looked defeated.

"We don't choose where they meet Sirius." Dumbledore scolded. 

"I never said a word sir." Sirius answered back.

"Now make no mistake people, Knockturn Alley is not a friendly place in times like these. Most all of the shop owners are Death Eaters and the ones who aren't sell all of their goods to Death Eaters so no one in there is going to be on our side. Most everyone there will be throwing curses at us, and _no one_ besides us is going to be throwing curses at the Death Eaters. But there are friendly neighborhoods around. You guys are going to have to be careful with those appiration wards, make sure they only go up over Knockturn Alley. We don't want anyone from the friendly places around not to be able to get out. Now the first shop we see we will take over as our fort. We're going to try and do this before the Death Eaters know we are there. We should go as soon as possible now. Everyone knows what they are going to do? Good, I'll go send Fawkes to the APA, they will meet us there." With that everyone stood up and started to walk out. 

"Something wrong Sirius?" Remus asked coming up from behind him. 

"Not at all Moony. We're attacking Voldermort at night, when we're going to be outnumbered about four to one, in the only place he can put up a counterattack in minutes. No, everything's great." Sirius answered sarcastically. 

"Well good, that's what I want to hear." Sirius gave Remus a look. "Look Sirius, if we all just do our jobs, none of us will get hurt, and we'll be out of there in an hour."

"Nothing like this takes an hour Remus, we both know that." At that comment they started walking out of the door. They all walked to a place outside of Hogsmead (A/N: I don't know if I put this in one of the first chapters but Bill and Professor Flitwick put up anti-appiration wards around Hogsmead too, along with other protection charms they were putting on the town and Hogworts) and were about to apperate. Dumbledore grabbed Harry's arm so he could apperate with him when Sirius came over. 

"What are you doing, Albus? He's not coming. He's too young." Sirius was always trying to protect Harry.

"He will stay in the fort we make. I will be with him at all times and if I can't be there will be Protection Auror's with him." Sirius still didn't look satisfied. "He's part of the Order Sirius, he's coming." With that tone of voice Sirius realized that arguing would do no good. "All right, we should all apperate to the Leaky Cauldron, we'll walk through Diagon Alley to Knockturn Ally from there. Now Diagon Alley is a friendly place. But as soon as we turn into Knockturn Ally, watch your back." With those last instructions people began to apperate. Once they were all in the Leaky Cauldron they got back into a group. Dumbledore told them to stay there for a minute and went over to talk to Tom the innkeeper. 

"What did you tell him Albus?" Moody asked when Dumbledore rejoined the group.

"I just said to him once we were gone he might want to evacuate the place. I said to tell everyone there was a troll in Diagon Ally and they couldn't get through the entrance to help or something like that. So people will be scared enough to leave, but won't panic." With those words Dumbledore lead the group to Knockturn Ally. People stared at them and some began to apperate, probably knowing that if all these wizards were heading towards Knockturn Ally, it wasn't a good thing. Sirius was still in his dog form until the got their fort so no one would recognize him. And while he was in his dog form he wasn't leaving Harry's side. In fact, Harry noticed that Patrick, Dumbledore, Remus, and Sirius in dog for had formed a sort of barrier around him. Whether this was to protect him from any curses, or so that no one would see him Harry couldn't tell. When they got onto the edge of Knockturn Ally Moody turned and said something to Dumbledore. Dumbledore shook his head and Moody went over to Mundungus Fletcher, and Arabella Figg. He whispered something to the two of them and they all started walking to Knockturn Ally. When a few other Order members started to follow, Dumbledore signaled for them to stay.

(INSIDE A STORE ON THE EDGE OF KNOCKTURN ALLY)

"As long as the Ministry keeps raiding those idiots are going to keep selling us their stuff so they don't get caught with it." One man said to the other behind the counter. All of a sudden the door burst open.

"What the-" one of the clerks said and the other reached for his wand.

"Touch that wand an you die Connolly." Moody growled to the clerk reaching for his wand. All three of the Order members already had their wands drawn.

"I was under the impression that you were out of the Auror business Moody." The man named Connolly growled back with the same look of hatred Moody had on his face. 

"This shop is now property of the Order of the Phoenix. Put your wands on the counter, step around it with your hands up, or we will be forced to take action." Fletcher ordered. Apparently the shop keepers didn't like their chances against the three because they did as they were sold. But just as they were about to step around the corner, the one that Moody did not address by name grabbed his wand. "Enferno"  Moody yelled before the man even had enough time to aim the wand at anyone and the man was left with ashes in his hand where the wand used to be. 

"Try that again and I'll shoot the curse at your head, not the wand." Moody said in the same growl.

"The Dark Lord's going to kill all of you rebels-"  "Stupefy" Arabella yelled and the man fell to the floor. 

"You were smart to cooperate, coward." Moody whispered to the clerk still standing with his hands up as he brushed pass him to the one on the ground. As Fletcher started to bond up the clerk still standing they heard Moody put the full-body bind on the man on the floor, and bind him in ropes. "That should hold him" Moody said with a little grin. I'll go and get Dumbledore, put these two in the back room." And with that he left the room. A couple minutes later all of the order came in and everyone was shouting last minute instructions at each other. Finally the APA showed up and the one that looked the leader came up to shake hands with Dumbledore. 

"Jared what took you so long. It's 9:20. We should have already attacked by now." Dumbledore said as a way of greeting. 

"It's crazy in Diagon Ally. Everyone saw you guys come and here and now they are all trying to run away. It's tough to keep a group this size," he motioned back to the thirty or so APA men that came in, "together when we're going the opposite way as everyone else." Just then Bill and Professor Flitwick walked into the shop. They had been out putting up the anti-appiration wards all around Knockturn Ally since the Order got there. 

"All right Albus, they're up. We're ready to go." Professor Flitwick said.

"Ok. Thank you. Now do your guys have a jail set up somewhere?" Dumbledore turned back to Jared.

"Ya, my guys can take the prisoners there once we get enough. You just take care of getting rid of those anti-appiration wards here." Jared answered.

"I will do that. Now we have to work fast, it's almost 9:30. I want you, and your best fifteen people to stay here. Then send the rest out with the Order. Hopefully this won't last too long." For about two minutes Jared went and spoke with his Aurors. Then they spilt in half, some going to one side of the room with the Order members, and the other half followed Jared over to talk to Dumbledore. Dumbledore told Jared to hold his men right there and went off to talk to the people attacking.

"Good, I see you have already split into groups." It was true, there was about six groups of five people. A couple of them had six. "Now I must stress again, I don't want you looking for Voldermort, he knows we are here and he has already left. Mark my words, I know how he works. From what I hear Diagon Ally was a panic, and that gave Voldermort all he needed to know to get out of their. But I guarantee you he left all of his Death Eaters here to fight us. Now you have to act quick, you will be out numbered and they know the area. Each group should try and set up their own fort like this. Bring your captured people there, that way you don't have to come all the way back here to drop them off. If you get captured, remember the ring, I don't want to lose anyone during this, so don't do anything unnecessary. You people are all the best, that's why you're here, we're going to need through this whole war. Good luck." With those last words the thirty Order members and protection aurors ran out as one group. Soon they split up. 

"I still don't know why you didn't let me go out there." Patrick whined.

"You are too valuable. We will never win this war if you don't teach us how to fight the dark animals. I can't have something happen to you in a raid when Voldermort will only be using wizards. Now that's the end of this." Dumbledore ended the conversation right there. "Jared, I want you and one other of your people to stay with myself, Patrick, and Harry. And can you have some people take the two people in the back taken to your jail." 

"What are we charging them with?" Jared asked.

"The one that is stunned try to attack three Order members, I don't know the fancy legal term. The other one hasn't done anything yet, but find something in this store to grab him for so you can interrogate him and see what he knows about the meeting tonight. I want to know who's there, what is was about, and why it was here instead of where they usually have them." 

"All right I'll send a couple of my guys with them and tell them to report back when they find something out." 

A few hours later the first group got back. They said that their area was clear and all they got was six death eaters. This was obviously not the hot spot where the meeting actually was. Soon after the first group got back they all started piling in. After five of the six groups were in there were thirty-two death eaters caught. At 1:30 a.m. people were starting to get nervous. 

"Albus where are they it has been nearly four hours."

"I don't know Minerva, if I did I would be helping them." Dumbledore answered a little agitated. Then all of the Order wizards started getting something that really made them nervous. 

"Did your ring spin too Moony?" Sirius asked.  "Ya."  Remus answered. "You know what that means don't you?"

"They're in trouble but we can't get to them for another two hours because of the anti-appiration wards." Harry answered from the other side of Sirius. Harry, Remus, Sirius, Patrick, Dumbledore, Jared, and another Protection Auror named Barry had been in the corner since Sirius and Remus's group got back. Every once in a while someone would come over to talk to Dumbledore, but realized that the group wanted to be alone. Harry had a feeling that if these were two of his protection aurors, this group would be spending a lot of time together. "Who's still out there?" Someone asked. That question had been asked more than once but it seemed you just had to ask again.

"Charlie, Mundungus, Victor, Alastor, Kevin, and James." Dumbledore answered. He said Kevin and James's name just like he said the rest, a long time ago they stopped seeing them as Protection Aurors and Order wizards and saw them as one coalition. This time it was Snape that came over to speak with Dumbledore.

"Aren't you going to do something sir? They're just sitting out there by themselves."

"I'm well aware of the situation, Severus. There is nothing I can do." Dumbledore answered.

"Nothing you can do! You could send someone out looking for them."

"Sending a group out there would do no good. If they're touching their rings they're in trouble, probably surrounded. Sending a group in on foot would just endanger the group you sent in. We can't do anything until the anti-appiration wards wear off and then we can go and get them Snape!" Everyone was surprised to hear Harry answer this time. But he didn't care. He was sick of people blaming Dumbledore for all of this.

"It would do you good to show a little _respect _to you superiors, Potter." Snape spit out hatefully.

"It's not the school year Snape. He's in the Order just like you. The only one superior to anyone in the Order is Dumbledore. And you would do good not to talk to him like that anymore." Sirius spit out just as hatefully.

"That is enough. Severus, Harry's right. We can't send a team in yet." Harry and Sirius got little smiles on at that remark. "Harry, you should show a little respect to Severus," Harry and Sirius's faces fell at this, and Snape glowed. "Severus, you should also talk to Sirius and Harry with respect. You are all in the Order, and therefore all deserve respect from one another. I will not tell you again, I want all of you to put an end to these stupid arguments." Dumbledore, as always, spoke in a tone that let no one argue back and Snape walked away while Harry and Sirius sat down.  

A/N: That's it! Did you like it? I know it was another pitiful attempt at a cliff hanger but I hope you guys are a little curious about what happens to the other group. This was the longest chapter I wrote since the first one! Keep reviewing please! 

P.S. I just finished reading WolfMoon's story about Harry's fifth year (I'm sorry wolfmoon I can't think of the mane of it) but you guys should all defiantly check it out. Just do an author search for wolfmoon and then go see the story. It's great! 

P.P.S. All right one last thing. I just want to know in your reviews who thinks that once Harry gets back to Hogworts, there should be lots of jokes and pranks that Harry, Ron, Sirius, and Remus (opps did I just give something away? Oh well you guys probably saw that coming. But no Sirius won't get freed and become a teacher, not for a while at least. Defiantly not in this year.) or should it be all serious? Or a little of both? Please let me know what you think.


	9. Sirius Did WHAT?

A/N: I accidentally wrote Moody last chapter as one of the people in the group that hadn't returned. I'm sorry that was my mistake I was supposed to put Fleur. These are getting up faster right? Is everyone happy with the speed of them? Do you guys think the chapters are long enough? I've tried to make them longer. Well go read and review.

Thank You's: 

Howling wolf: I'm glad you are reviewed and I'm glad you like it. Is this the first time you've read this story or just the first time you reviewed it? Well keep reviewing please I hope you like this one.

WolfMoon: Ah that's exactly what I thought. Lots of pranks. Any serious stuff? I'm sorry I haven't reviewed your story in a while I'll try to get to it soon I've been so busy. You do have some really good pranks and if I ever use one and forget to credit you just remind me and I will give you the credit you deserve. I hope this was continued soon enough for you. 

Fairymagic689:  Thank you I'm glad you like it. That's exactly what I thought, lots of pranks and serious stuff. Well this chapter was serious, but once we get to Hogworts the serious stuff will start. Thanks.

RJLL: Ahh you were almost right with your guess. I thought about Harry or Dumbledore getting caught but then changed my mind to this did you like it? I hope you did. Thanks for the reviews.

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

"I need to use the bathroom. I'll be right back." Sirius said and left the group.

"He's taking this rather hard isn't he?" Patrick asked with sympathy. It was true, Sirius did seem to take this a little harder than everyone else.

"There is an interesting history between Sirius and Charlie Weasly." Remus began, and this perked the ears of all of he group (except Dumbledore who seems to know all the stories about everyone). "You see, Charlie wasn't always in charge of dragons. Back when Voldermort was in power last time Charlie decided he wanted to help."

"So he decided to join the APA."  The man called Jimmy said. "I knew I knew him from somewhere. Chuck Weasly."

"Yes. And Sirius was sort of his mentor. Took him under his wing while Charlie was training. Well after Sirius was arrested everyone was shocked. Their first reaction was that they had to have the wrong man. But after a week or so they all just decided Sirius was fooling them. Everyone gave up on him." Remus said sadly. 

"Except Chuck." Jimmy piped in again.

"That's right. Charlie tried to convince anyone who would listen Sirius didn't do it. But no one would listen. People began to think Charlie might be a Death Eater too. He was practically run out of Britain. That's why he moved to Romania and started working with dragons. He _couldn't_ stay here. People were threatening to hurt him and his family."

"He doesn't seem very bitter around you guys." Harry interrupted.

"No. He forgave us, just like Sirius did. I'm afraid in times to come you will see the steaks Voldermort drives between friends. But when everyone has good intentions, it turns out all right."  Dumbledore answered. Just them a very distraught looking Protection Auror came running towards the group.

"Albus, Jason, we tried to stop him. He wouldn't listen. He went out after the group. He said he couldn't leave him out there."

"Wait, wait, Steve relax. What are you talking about." Jason tried to calm the man down.

"Sirius. He went out after the group. He said if we waited any longer they'd all be gone." An audible curse was heard from where Remus once stood and he started to head for the door.

"No Remus! Sirius can take care of himself. We'll just have to wait and see how things play out." Jason yelled.

"Ya, we see how long you're willing to wait!" Remus yelled at Jason.

"Remus wait. Going out there will just be suicide." Dumbledore tried to reason with him.

"Oh but you'll let Sirius commit suicide." Remus answered back.

"If I knew where Sirius was going I would have stopped him. Now SIT DOWN!" Dumbledore boomed in a way that made everyone tremble. "Jason, come here." Dumbledore said and started walking. "Keep an eye on him." Dumbledore said to Hagrid as he walked past him to a side room. "All right I want a rescue team ready. Nothing big. Two of mine, two of yours. The smaller the group, the quicker they can move. My guys will know the second someone touches their ring. The group should be ready at all times. I want it made clear that no one else leaves this room unless one of us gives them permission. Go get your two guys, brief them, and come back here in five minutes."  Jason turned to leave, "Jason, I need your best." Dumbledore said very seriously. 

"Yes, sir." Jason answered.

"Patrick, Alastor." Dumbledore called as he stepped out of the room. Jason went off to go and get his two guys. "Moody did you hear about Sirius? Good." Moody had shaken his head yes. "Ok I know you two don't like each other and I don't care. Put your feelings for one another aside, work together, and get Sirius."

"Do we know he's been captured sir?" Moody asked.

"Take my word for it, if he's not with Voldermort now, he's dead. Now you will be working with two of Jason's guys. I don't expect them to find Sirius, I expect you two to do that. But they're the best at getting him out safe once you have found him. So trust them. Now Sirius didn't tell anyone this yet because he wasn't sure if it worked but he will try to warn you a special way through the ring that he needs to be rescued. It will flash red while it spins. While it's doing that, if you apperate it will take you to the closest place you can get to the ring without being seen by the enemy. Then it acts as sort of a compass. Take it off, put it in the palm of your hand, and it will point you towards Sirius."

"He's brilliant." Patrick muttered, amazed at what Sirius did to the rings. 

"If he was so brilliant he wouldn't have went out there." Dumbledore said coolly. No one had seen Dumbledore act like this before. "Good luck. You can go and meet up with Jason's two guys.

***

(In Knockturn Ally)

"Stupefy!"  This one word made Sirius fall to the ground. "Well this will make the Dark Lord happy." A Death Eater said. "Wormtail, pick up the body. Follow me." 

***

(Somewhere else in Knockturn Ally)

"How long have we been here?" Charlie asked.

"Too long." Someone else from the group answered. 

"Wait, quiet, their apperating away. That means the wards are down. YES! Is everyone ready to go back? On the count of three. ONE, TWO, THREE!" At those words all six members of the trapped group disappeared with a little pop, and reappeared in the shop that the order had taken.

***

(Back in the Shop)

As the six missing people popped into the shop everyone started approaching them. Dumbledore beat everyone there and lead them away before anyone could ask them questions. "What happened?" Dumbledore asked as soon as they were out of ear shot.

"We advanced really quickly, sir. We must have been right in the heart of the meeting. They had other death eaters scattered around the ally, but that must have been just to distract us. Well we were outnumbered about 20 to six, so they pinned us down pretty quickly. We've been stuck there since about the time we went in." Charlie answered. "Then we heard them stun someone, and they all disapperated, so we realized the wards must be down, so we came back here."

"Did any of you see who they stunned?" Everyone shook their heads.

"Sir, what's going on?" Victor asked.

"Sirius went out to find you. That must have been him that they stunned." 

"Well let's go. We have to go find him." Charlie burst out.

"Calm down Mr. Weasly, we have a rescue team ready to go the second we hear from him. All we can do now is wait." Dumbledore said as an end to the discussion and they all went back to the group being bombarded with questions. 

***

(Voldermort's hideout)

Sirius looked around. He was surrounded by about thirty Death Eaters. He tried to get up and found that he was bound to the floor by chains around his neck, wrists, and feet. "Ah, I see our friend has woken up." An icy voice from strait ahead of Sirius was heard. All of the Death Eaters laughed. This must be Voldermorts voice. "So I have finally met the infamous Sirius Black. You know Sirius, some say you are my second in command. My right hand man." Voldermort was toying with him. 

"Some people are stupid." Sirus spat in response. 

"This is true. I agree with you there. You see, we're already getting along." Voldermort took two more steps towards Sirius. 

"What do you think you can get from me? You think Dumbledore will turn himself in for me? You're wrong. You won't get anything for me." Sirius roared.

"I don't want anything for you. I just want you. You see Sirius, I don't like people to think that I have a second in command that is friends with Dumbledore. You will have to pay for other's stupidity. And I have been told you have gotten quite close to Harry Potter, you will pay for that too." At this Sirius quivered. "Crucio" Voldermort yelled and watched Sirius squirm around on the floor for a minute before he took off the curse. "You must learn not to quiver in my presence. Not unless I do something to make you." Voldermort then punched Sirius in the face. "Get up!" He yelled. "There, then you can quiver." Voldermort laughed. "Take him to the dungeons. Tie him up there. You two guard it. If you want to have a little fun with him, be my guest. But make sure you don't kill him." Voldermort said to the two Death Eaters closest to Sirius. "We will have a little chat in a while, I look forward to it, Black." With that Voldermort stormed out of the room and before Sirius knew what was happening he was stunned again.

A/N: Now everyone please review.  I could have gone a little further with this but I wanted to get it up real fast for you. One or two more chapters and then they will be at Hogworts! I can't wait I think the story will get much better! Please REVIEW!!


	10. The Rescue

A/N: Well I hope this didn't take too long for you guys and I hope you like this chapter. Please read the author notes at the bottom.

Thank You's: 

Twilight Witch: thank you for the review I'm glad you like the story. Hey, I didn't even notice I put that Harry and Dumbledore are related. It was just a coincidence but since you pointed it out, maybe I can add it in to the story. I'll see how it fits. Thank You.

WolfMoon: You always have encouraging words, thank you. You do have lots of good pranks and I appreciate you letting me use them. I have finally caught back up in your stories, they're great! Did you have fun on your trip? Where was it you said you went? New Zealand? Well I hope it was good. Thanks for the review.

RJLL: I hope I didn't make you wait too long. It took a little longer than expected but I made it really long. I hope you like it. I thought the Charlie story fit in well too thanks!

Hex Agon: I hope you liked this. I would hardly say this is perfect but I really appreciate the compliments! You're an awesome reviewer. Is this one long enough for you? I tried to make it longer. if you leave an e-mail address I can e-mail you when my new chapter is up…that's what I for other people. Thanks for the review!   

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

"Get Up!" One of the Death Eater's spat at Sirius. They kicked him in his stomach. Sirius was now in a small dark room with two death eaters. Again he was bond up but this time his arms were above his head and his feet were attached to the floor. "How long have I been here?" Sirius managed to ask. 

"Just a couple of hours." Sirius recognized that voice.

"Snape!" Sirius growled.

"Well you didn't think I'd really be working for that fool trying to save all the muggles do you?" 

"Severus, what are you saying? Shut up! What if he gets to tell Dumbledore?"  The other death eater said.

"He won't get out of here alive Lucius. And if he does, he'll have been tortured so bad he won't remember anything." At this point Snape punched Sirius in the face. "Now leave us, I think I'll have a little fun with our new guest here."

"All right I'll be down the hall if you need me just yell." Lucius answered and threw some dirt at Sirius before he left. 

"What the hell is wrong with you Snape? After all that Dumbledore has given you you're going to turn you're back on him?" Sirius almost yelled.

"Shut up. You really got yourself in deep this time Sirius." Snape said mockingly. "And now I'm going to have to be the one to get you out of this mess." Sirius looked confused after this last statement. Whose side _was_ Snape on? Sirius just couldn't figure out. 

"What are you talking about Snape? Make some sense will you?" Sirius was angry now.

"You screwed up and now I'm going to have to save you." 

"You don't have to save anyone. If you really want to help just give me your wand for a second. The order will be here and no one will know how they got here. If you're in here with me the whole time, they can't suspect you." Snape didn't look very happy about receiving orders from someone tied up, much less from Sirius. But nevertheless Snape handed Sirius his wand after quickly undoing the chains on his wrists. Sirius touched the tip of Snape's wand to his ring, and muttered something that Snape couldn't hear. Snape looked down at his finger with a confused expression on his face. "What's it doing?" Sirius asked eagerly.

"It's spinning. But not like it usually does. It's flashing red too." Snape answered, still confused. "What's going on?" He asked.

"Special addition I made to them. I wasn't sure if it worked yet so I didn't tell anyone. Hey, how did you get here anyway? Weren't you with the order?" Sirius was all of a sudden confused again. 

"When you got caught Voldermort called a meeting. We all had to be here so I left the order so he didn't get suspicious. Now shut up and put your arms back into those chains." Sirius, even though he would have liked to hit Snape right then, handed the man back his wand and bond himself back up. 

"Now I know this is going to make you terribly upset," Sirius said in a sarcastic tone, "but you better start doing something to me or Malfoy is going to get suspicious." Just then a sick smile came over Snape's face. He yelled the Crutains Curse and Sirius flailed around in the shackles for about a minute before Snape took the curse off. He then started punching Sirius.

***

(Back in Knockturn Alley with the Order)

Everyone in the order looked down curiously at their rings. As they all took out their wands to apperate, Dumbledore stood up, "No one go anywhere." With these few words everyone started talking. Dumbledore looked over to the little group that was standing away from everyone else and gave them a short nod. Moody and Patrick grabbed hold of the two Protection Auror's and they all disappeared with a small 'pop'. This made everyone in the room talk even more so Dumbledore stood up and explained everything to them.

**

The group of four looked around. Their faces fell as they realized that they were facing miles and miles of hills. They looked like they never ended, each one rolling on to reveal another of even bigger proportions. "Well it looks like your friends little rings don't work." The auror named Jacob said a little bitterly. 

"They work. We'll just have to follow the direction." Moody said with a threatening look to the auror as he pulled off his ring and placed it in the palm of his hand. It pointed them strait forward.  They all gave a sigh and started walking. After they had been walking for about a half an hour the sun started to peak out. 

"Shouldn't we rest a little? We'll need all of our strength if we are going to have to fight the Death Eater."  The other Protection Auror his name was (A/N: did I name him yet? I don't think so) Dan. 

"We're not going to fight all the death eaters. Our best chance to get this job done is to get in and out unnoticed. You don't always have to walk into a place and start throwing curses." Patrick said simply. It was clear that these people weren't getting along. "And Voldermort will question Sirius, so we have to get there as soon as possible." The two auror's flinched at Voldermort's named but quickly forgot about it.

"How do you know what they'll do?" Jacob asked bitterly. He was supposed to be the expert about Voldermort. He had studied him for many years trying to figure out everything he did. Patrick gave him a death stare. Apparently this man didn't know about Patrick long stint in Voldermort's clutches, but Patrick decided that it was not the best time to tell stories. After they came over the second hill, they had been walking for about an hour, they saw the castle up ahead. "How can it be so close, we couldn't even see it before." Dan asked. 

"It must be some kind of illusion," Moody said. "to discourage people from coming if they apperate here and they don't see anything but miles of hills." They took off at a run and before they knew it they were about 100 yards away from the castle. It was massive. Made out of black stone it seemed to absorb all of the light within ten miles from it. Around the giant castle was a moat, and no one even wanted to think about the dark creatures that inhabited that water. The moat was about ten feet wide, and ran all the way around the castle. They still couldn't get a good look at it because they kept their distance. "All right here's the plan; we will sneak in the castle, try not to be seen. If there is an isolated death eater that stands in our way, we can take him out quietly. We will lose if we try and start a fight with everyone here. So move quietly, and stay in the shadows. Our first task is to get over to that moat. Follow me." Moody had taken over as pretty much being the leader of the group. They all ran and when they were about ten feet from the moat, they dove behind a huge rock that would shield them from view. "Do you see anyone on the tops of the castle?" Moody asked Jacob because he was on the edge and could peek around the huge rock. 

"No. There don't seem to be any people anywhere." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that they had all put aside their little arguments for the time being and were focused on the task at hand. "Wait. I see a creature guarding the bridge though. I don't recognize him. It's nothing like I've ever seen before." 

"Here let me see." Patrick and Jacob quickly switched positions and Patrick peeked around the edge of the rock.

"Do you know what it is?" Moody asked him.

"It's a Kappa." Patrick answered.

"Can you kill it." Dan asked. He was on the other end and grabbed his wand. As he reached around the rock to curse it Patrick stopped him. 

"No! You can't curse this thing. Magic doesn't penetrate though its outer layers. No magic we can use anyway." Patrick warned.

"Well it looks pretty small, why don't we just run up to it and tackle it into the water." Jacob suggested. 

"No. Kappa's are dangerous. It would kill everyone of us if we went out there after it. Its drive to eat human blood gives it extra strength in a battle." Moody told them all. They all looked slightly scared. "Can you do anything to it, Patrick?" Moody asked Patrick knowing that Knights had a special skill when it came to dark creatures. 

"Ya, I think I can take it." Patrick answered. "Just give me a little room. They all moved to the other edge of the rock and peeked around the edge. Just like in Diagon Alley when Patrick drew his sword, he now took a bow from seemingly nowhere. As soon as he had the bow out a bag of arrows could be seen on his back. Dan opened his mouth to start to ask a question but Moody put up a hand that clearly said now was not the time for questions. Patrick loaded the arrow into the bow and pulled it back. He let go and the arrow traveled with such speed it could have been mistaken for a bullet out of a gun. The arrow pierced the Kappa's leg and it stumbled. 

"Damn, you missed." Moody cursed quietly.

"Just wait a second." Patrick ordered. As the Kappa was stumbling around, it fell to the ground. Water emptied out of the top of its head and it lied on the ground not moving. "You can't just kill a Kappa by shooting it in the head, its scales are too think. The trick is to get it to fall down and empty the water out of its head." Patrick said matter-of-factly and got up to walk over the bridge. The others followed. When they got closer to the animal they noticed it looked quite like a monkey only with scales where there should be fur. Patrick kicked the Kappa over and pulled the arrow out of its foot. He looked at the point, and then threw it into the water. He turned to Moody and with a smug voice and said, "I don't miss." They all gave a little laughed and crossed the bridge. "This must be a new fortress for Voldermort, there's not much security." Patrick commented as they walked though the front gates into some kind of entrance hall and still had not passed by any wizards. Moody took off his ring again and put it in his hand. It pointed them to a small staircase off to the side which would have gone unnoticed had it not been for the ring. They silently crept down the staircase and before they reached the bottom they heard voices. Patrick put his hands to his lips and signaled for everyone to be quiet. 

"I don't know why we have to stay guard here while everyone else is at the meeting." They heard one death eater say. He sounded very young. "It's not like these prisoners are going anywhere." This brought a smile to everyone's face; prisoners, just who they were looking for. This was looking too easy. As the other three people grabbed their wands Patrick whispered to them, "Don't use any magic unless we're seen. We don't know what kind of sensors Voldermort has up. He may be able to detect any magic used. Especially near the prisoners." As he said this he drew his sword. It seemed he was as comfortable with these weapons as with any wand. 

"I told you, master wants us to bring Black to him when he calls." The other death eater said. 

"Well why do there need to be two of us here? He's tied up. It'll only take one person." The first complained.

The four people listening to the conversation shook their heads at how foolish these young death eaters were. They unknowingly just told anyone listening what they were doing down there, a prisoners name, when they would be moving, and how many death eaters they were. They were quiet for the next couple of minutes and the group sat on the steps just waiting for the right opportunity. After about ten minutes passed a voiced echoed through the hall, "BRING ME BLACK!" It was Voldermort. They heard the two death eaters walk over to some kind of door and jingle keys around. The door opened and the death eaters saw Sirius still hanging with his hands and feet bond. "_come on guys, where are you" _Sirius thought to himself. He began to think the order wasn't coming. "Let's go Black, the Dark Lord is waiting for you." The death eater said mockingly. They heard a 'thud' and Sirius groan. As the two death eaters pushed and kicked Sirius over to the staircase, the four men listening to it all backed up the staircase and just around the corner. They heard Sirius being pushed and kicked up the stairs and then saw the group of three emerge from the shadows. The death eaters walked right by the four wizards not even noticing them. Patrick mouthed to the group, 'I'll do it.' And crept out of the shadows. Again he pulled out the bow and arrow and pulled it back ready to fire. He released the arrow and it went flying into the back of the head of the first death eater. By now the two groups were about fifteen feet away but Patrick showed great accuracy. The other death eater spun around wand in hand ready to curse the intruder but Sirius, still with his hands and feet bound, pushed the death eater. The man stumbled and this gave Patrick all the time he needed. He dropped the bow and arrows and drew his sword. With one swift motion the death eater was on the ground clutching his throat. It was no use, the blood was coming out too fast and soon his hands fell away from his neck and he went limp. The other three men, who had been standing wand in hands ready incase they needed to help, rushed up to Sirius and undid the ropes on his hands and feet. "Come on, we don't have much time." Patrick said and started to run for the doors. 

"Aren't you going to pick these guys up?" Sirius gave a disgusted look at the death eaters.

"No, I want Voldermort to know who was here." Patrick said bitterly and with fire in his eyes. "Now we need to hurry up, it's only a matter of time before Voldermort sends someone up here." And they headed for the door. As they were crossing the bridge they heard Voldermort's voice echo through the castle again, "IF BLACK ISN'T HERE IN TWO MINUTES, SOMEONE IS GOING TO BE VERY SORRY!!!" 

"Well I wouldn't want to be those death eaters in that meeting when Voldermort finds two of his men dead." Sirius said with a smile on his face. "I hope he gets Snape." Sirius added bitterly. 

"Sirius, you know what Dumbledore says, we're all on the same side now." Moody scolded.

"I'm not sure." Sirius said skeptically. "I'm going to keep an extra eye on him." No one spoke for the rest of the trip, they were all think about Snape. _Whose side was he on?_ Sirius knew he certainly didn't waste any time putting the Crutains (sp?) curse on him. When they reached a spot where they knew that the anti-appiration wards were down they all apperated back to Knockturn Alley. 

The whole order turned when they heard a small 'pop' at the side of the room. Patrick, Moody, Jacob, and Dan all came back with a very beat up looking Sirius. When Dumbledore saw the group he stood up to address everyone in the room. "You can all go home now. This was successful. We captured death eaters, and we all got back alive. Please now return to your families. They will be worried about you. We will have another meeting when I know more. I ask you to please leave the group alone. They will give all the details of their trip at our next meeting." With those words people began to apperate away.

Dumbledore made his way to the group but before he could get all the way there he was intercepted by Remus, "Go easy on him Albus, he was only doing what he thought was right." Sirius's old friend tried to reason with the man. 

"Remus, I am aware of his motives. I will take them into consideration, but the fact still remains that what he did was unacceptable." Dumbledore seemed very angry. Remus just nodded his head in agreement. "Please take Harry home." And with that Dumbledore continued towards the group. Sirius looked at Dumbledore with a mix of fear and regret. "Sirius, I'll need you to come back to Hogworts to get treated since you can not show up at a normal hospitals. Poppy's out but I'm sure the house elves will be more than happy to treat you." Dumbledore spoke quickly and coolly. "I ask that the rest of you also return to Hogworts, I need to speak with you all in my office." Dumbledore added this last part to Patrick, Moody, Jacob, and Dan. "On second thought, Dan, and Jacob, Jason will probably be wanting to speak with you, go see him instead. Patrick and Alastor can fill me in on what happened. I thank you for your help." Dumbledore shook each one of their hands and the two men left. "We will have to apperate outside of Hogsmead and walk quite a distance. Sirius, can you handle that?" Dumbledore asked. He may have been mad at Sirius, but he certainly didn't want to hurt him any further. 

"Yes, but I can't apperate. My wand was taken by the death eaters. We didn't have time to go back and get it."

"Fine. I'll send an owl to Olivander's when we get back to Hogworts, he can bring some to Hogworts and we will get you a new one. For now, one of you two can apperate with him." Dumbledore said and disappeared with a 'pop'.

"I hope it takes the house elves a long time to treat me. I don't want to be anywhere near him for the next couple days." Sirius remarked. Then Patrick grabbed his arm and the three apperated away. The walk from outside Hogsmead to Hogworts was a quite one. No one spoke, or even looked at each other. There was not a word said until they got to the hospital wing, "Stay here, I'll send some of the house elves up." Dumbledore told Sirius, "Can you two meet me in my office?" He asked a little more warmly but still in an agitated tone to Patrick and Moody. The two of them were more than happy to leave the room and turned around without a word. For a couple of minutes Dumbledore stared at Sirius, every once in a while one of them would open their mouth about to say something, but then change their mind. Finally Dumbledore just turned and stormed out of the room.

"He was just doing what he thought was the for the best." Patrick and Moody had just gotten through explaining what happened at Voldermort's castle and were now trying to calm Dumbledore down. 

"I know what he was trying to do, and I respect that, but he put his life, along with yours in danger. He should have stayed with the rest of us and we could have organized something to get the group back. As it was he didn't really do all that much. Eventually they would have figured out the wards were down and they would have came back. I just can not find a valid excuse for what he did. Trust me I tried. I like Sirius as much as anyone. But we can not have people doing this. You guys can go. I'll speak with Sirius later." And with that all three men went off their separate ways.

It had been about a week since the raid on Knockturn Alley and the summer holidays were coming to an end. There was only a week left until Hogworts started. The Order had been recruiting as much as possible and were gaining numbers by the day. There had been no death eater attacks to speak of, not even little ones on muggles. The Order was getting very nervous, if Voldermort was waiting this long, he had to be planning something big. The Order was gaining lots of help from the animals in the forest, thanks mostly to Remus's ability to talk to them, but it seemed Voldermort was looking abroad to find the most dangerous dark creatures know to wizard. Everything was set for the students return to Hogworts, there were dragons positioned at the entrance, and the train had been equipped with every protection spell anyone in the Order could think of. Protection Auror's would be riding on the bus this year also as an added precaution. There was a train that had been set up outside of Hogsmead, that people could apperate to and then be transported from the station to Hogsmead. Protection Auror's were on that too. The Protection Auror's (or PA's as they were called) were doing a huge part in helping the Order. The Ministry was still denying Voldermort's existence, and Fudge was very upset with all the safety measures Dumbledore was taking for the upcoming school year. 

Besides all of the Order things that had been going on Harry had been training vigorously. Sirius, Remus, and Dumbledore were doing most of the magical training, but even more than that Patrick was training Harry to use the sword and bow and arrow. Those sessions weren't coming around as good but Patrick kept telling Harry that once they got to go and talk to the Knights, Harry would get properly trained. Over the next summer break Harry was going to train with the Knights and Patrick swore that he soon Harry would be as comfortable with the bow and arrow, and sword as with his wand. Sirius kept pointing out that though this was a good plan, the Knights hated wizards and were not likely to take Harry into training. Patrick seemed to have something in mind though he was not telling anyone. 

When Harry was not training with Sirius, Remus, and Dumbledore or Patrick, Dumbledore seemed to always insist that Harry needed to practice flying. Harry thought this was strange and didn't understand why until two days before the school year was about to start and Dumbledore called an Order meeting. 

"So what's our next move?" Arthur Weasly asked after everyone had given updates about what they were working on (A/N: it was really nothing new or important so I'm not going to go through everyone).

"We wait." Dumbledore answered. This caused a stir and Dumbledore wait for a moment for everything to die down. "Voldermort made that attack with the dementors to show us that he is indeed back in power. We countered with the raid on Knockturn Alley to show him that we were not going to wait until it was to late to start the Order. Now it's a race against the clock. Both sides are preparing for the upcoming war. We are both recruiting, trying to make our strong holds stronger, trying to gather intelligence on each other, and trying to build new alliances. The outcome of the war could very well depend on who wins this race." Dumbledore said the last sentence like he wasn't sure if it was a good thing. "That will be all for today, many of you have to get your children ready for the upcoming school year, some have to get yourselves ready for the school year, so go home and enjoy the last two days of your holiday. Opps, I'm sorry every can't leave yet." Dumbledore added over the noise of everyone getting up. I would like Arabella, Sirius, Remus, Victor, Harry, Charlie, Bill, and anyone else I did not mention that is a good flyer to stay. Just remember if I didn't call your name and you think you want to stay, I need only the best flyers. If you take up this job and are not the very best, you will most likely be killed or get someone killed. So please, only the best." These words were enough to scare everyone that was not called away, and even the ones called looked a little nervous. "Please everyone, sit down. We will be starting a new branch of the Order and I would like you seven to be the first ones in it."

A/N: I think I will stop there. This one was really long! I know it may not look as long as the first chapter, but I have less spaces between each line and that makes it look smaller. I'm about to check, but I think word wise it's bigger. If anyone doesn't like the way it is spaced now just tell me and I'll change it, I'm just seeing how it works. Now please read and review, also I need to ask everyone to PLEASE tell anyone they know who reads fanfic's to please review this. I'm not really happy with the number of reviews I get and if you guys could recommend this story to just one person, that would make a huge difference. Thanks! 

Oh ya and for the next two weeks I should be updating kind of fast because I'm on vacation now so I have no school. By January 2 (that's when I go back to school) I want to have gotten (counting this one) 3-4 chapter up.

**IMPORTANT NOTE: next chapter will be the end of that meeting and then the start of the school year…do you guys want the school year to start a new story…or to continue on this one? Please just tell me in your reviews.**


	11. The Maruader's Return

A/N: wow really fast right? Less than 24 hours. My fingers are so tired. Well read and review!! I hope everyone has a happy vacation too!

Thank You's: 

WolfMoon: No matter how fast I update I just can't seem to get up a chapter before you reviewed the last one. Even when you're on vacation! You're awesome. I believe it is 'Hogworts' and that I just misspelled it when I wrote 'Hogwarts' but I have no idea about the Crutains curse and I would really appreciate it if you looked it up and told me. I haven't reviewed chapter 8 yet. I would do it now but it is 12:50 a.m. and I have to be up at 6:30 in the morning. I will be sure to do it sometime tomorrow. I didn't get an e-mail, did you not send one or did I just not get it? Oh well now I know and I will go and review tomorrow.

Blank: Thank You I'm glad you liked it. Please keep reviewing. Oh yeah, are you the same person that reviews with no name every time? Or is it someone else? It doesn't matter I'm just curious. Thank you for the review!

White Owl: I have taken your advice. Is the spelling better in this one? I will later go back and check on the Jacob Jason thing and I really appreciate you pointing it out. I love getting reviews like that. I know this one was not as long but I hope you still like it.

ER: there will be lots of pranks…I don't know if this one was good or not, let me know. I didn't really want to say anything about it but yes, in time Ron and Hermione will be joining the Order. You will have to wait to see how and when the join. Thanks for the review!

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

"What new branch is this?" Sirius asked. Dumbledore and Sirius were apparently over their previous fight and were going back to being friends. 

"It will be called the Broom Brigade," Dumbledore said and all seven people looked equally confused. The only one who looked like they understood anything was Harry, '_this is why he wanted me to be flying so much' _Harry told himself. "You are all the very best when it comes to flying. So, I have devised a new plan. It is actually a very old plan that I am carrying out. When brooms where first invented, contrary to popular belief, they were for war purposes. They were going to be used as extra fighters, from the air. No one knows this because it was never actually done. The broom was never perfected enough to send people up on them. But now, I believe they have reached that point. If you could all follow me I would like to show you what you will be flying." They left Dumbledore's office and headed out of the castle. They made their way across the grounds and into the quidditch pitch. As they entered the shed that is underneath one set of bleachers, everyone looked at what was sitting there amazed. In place of where the old school brooms usually sat were the oddest looking brooms (if you could even call them that) that anyone of these people had ever seen. 

"What are these, sir?" Victor was the first one to speak.

"These are combat brooms. You will be going in on them into combat zones during this war."  These were not any regular brooms. There was a broom on the base of the contraption, but that is where it ended looking like any brooms these people had used playing quidditch. Around the broom was a plastic looking cone shaped shield that was glowing blue, and inside there was a sort of control panel with buttons on it. There even looked to be something like a seat. When Dumbledore felt that everyone was sufficiently confused, he spoke again, "This is the best design that there is. I have had some of the best and most respected broom designers working on this since Voldermorts last reign. It took them twenty years to master it, and make their final product, we need you to learn how to master flying it in two weeks." Dumbledore said this with no glint in his eye. "You will be the order's greatest assets. You will do everything from gathering intel, to going in to fight. This means that while you are in the air, and even when you have both feet on the ground, you will be prime targets of Voldermort. If anyone wants to go, now's the time." Dumbledore paused, though everyone knew that no one was leaving. "Good, I knew I could count on you. Now I'm no expert flier, but I know how this thing works. I will tell you everything I know about it, but learning how to master it will be your tasks." 

Dumbledore levitated the 'broom' and began explaining all the features. He started with everything on the outside. There was a camera on the bottom of the nose of the broom for when they wanted to do reconnaissance missions, it would take a picture whenever it thought is saw something suspicious and you could trigger it to take a picture from the inside. On the back and both sides were hooks that you could rig some kind of rope to incase you needed to strap one of the brooms or something else that couldn't fly between two of the brooms. Apparently the blue cone thing was a shield, to protect you from curses. "This shield has not yet been perfected. Do not be surprised if your shield goes down. That's when you will really have to show your flying skills." It sounded like this shield would go down easily but no one said anything. "Now I'll show you the inside. The seat is detachable, you can use it if you think it is better or you can take it off if it will be in the way. There is a wand that is right at the tip of the broom," Dumbledore pointed to a wand that was about 10 inches long, and appeared to be made of mahogany wood, later they found out that there was a phoenix feather for the core, "you control that wand with this thing here," Dumbledore now pointed to something back inside the cockpit (A/N: that's what I'll call where all the buttons are so I don't have to keep saying 'inside the broom or stuff like that') that looked like what Harry recognized as a joystick and a computer screen, some muggle toys that Dudley played with, "When you are on the broom, anytime you look at the screen you will see what the wand is pointed at, line up the crosshairs to what you want to curse, say the curse, then press this button," the old man indicated a red button on top of the joystick. "The curse will be shot out from the wand." The six men and one woman were standing astonished at what this broom could do. "Don't get to excited yet, you haven't seen the best part. There are three buttons here, this white one is used as an visibility button."

"You mean we can fight them and they won't even be able to see us." Charlie said with a large smile on his face. This was the first time anyone said anything since Dumbledore started explaining things.

"Not quite, Charlie," Dumbledore answered with a chuckle. "Close, but not quite. As long as all you're doing is watching them, the invisibility button will work, but once you fire a curse, or take a picture it doesn't work anymore. And you can't just keep putting it back on." Dumbledore added that last part to Sirius, he was always trying to find a way around things. "it takes days to recharge it after you use it, so make sure you're ready to be seen when you take a picture or throw a curse. This button here," he pointed to a red one, "let's you do the most damage. It's a new curse, but it doesn't work out of regular wands. It is the 'bandario' curse. It's not very accurate but it causes an explosion big enough to collapse a whole building. This too can only be used once a flight, because it has to be recharged. Make sure you really need it when you use it. This last button, the purple one, is the most helpful one, but it also needs to be used with the most care. You can not apperate while in this broom, but if you hit this button while thinking of a place, you can apperate there. It even works when anti-appiration wards are up. Now this one can only be used once, not once and then recharged like the other ones, but you can only use it once. The only time you should use this button is if the death eaters are about to capture the broom. Death eaters can never know about this, they need to be protected above anything else." Dumbledore said this very seriously, and though it was not said, it was clear that if you had to lay down your life to keep these brooms secrets secret, than that is what you had to do. "I will leave you all to practice, please take this very seriously, some day you could be our last defense." With that Dumbledore walked out of the room. 

"Well, let's get started." Sirius said. Each one found a broom and got into it. 

For hours and hours they flew around Hogworts grounds, they broke up into two teams for a while and tried to attack each other. So that they wouldn't do any damage they used color curses. You just said a color and that color flew out of your wand. It was how the auror's trained for battle. Harry had been taught this spell a couple weeks back. After about six hours of training they decided to call it a day. Harry, Remus, and Sirius went back to Harry's place and had supper. Sirius had just finished telling the story about a particularly mean prank the Marauder's had played on Snape when they were at school. This gave Harry an idea, "Hey, this school year is going to need some laughs, maybe even more than Fred and George can provide." 

"Ya, what's your point?" Sirius asked.

"Well, you two will be staying at Hogworts to work with the Order and stuff, I'll be there." Harry continued. 

"Do you have a point or are you just rambling?" Remus asked. In the past weeks Harry noticed that being around Sirius took Remus out of his mature Professor mode and put him back into his Marauder mode. 

"You two were Marauder's, I'm a son of a Marauder, what do you say? Think it's time the Marauders made their return to Hogworts?" Harry said with a great huge smile on his face. And for the rest of the night the three spent their time trying to come up with a way to start the New Year with the Marauder's off with a bang. They couldn't wait until the welcoming feast!

The next day the seven broom pilots, as they were calling themselves, trained for six hours again. They were starting to get the hang of controlling these things. 

Before Harry knew it Remus, Patrick, and Sirius (in dog form) were walking into Kings Cross station. Dumbledore thought it was best for Harry to take the train as to limit questions asked. Sirius, Remus, and Patrick had to be there anyway because they were patrolling the train, so they all went together. 

"Harry!" Harry heard someone call his name and saw a two people rushing towards him. The first one to reach him was Hermione, and she engulfed him in a long hug. She continued to hug him and ask a million incoherent questions until finally Ron was able to pull her off. 

"How was your vacation, mate?" Ron asked Harry a little more calmly than Hermione.

"Interesting." Was Harry's only answer. This made the two of them look a little confused.

"So I've heard." Ron answered and motioned his head back towards his parents indicating that the two of them knew about the order.

"You haven't heard half of it." Harry answered mysteriously. This made the two very confused and Harry simply said, "I'll tell you on the train. When we have a little more privacy." With that Remus, Snuffles, and Patrick reached the group on Harry's side, while Molly, Arthur, Fred, George, Ginny, Charlie, Bill, and Percy approached from Ron and Hermione's side. The whole group exchanged greetings and then they were left staring at Patrick.

"Ah, Ron, Fred, George, Hermione, Ginny, this is Patrick English. He is part of the Order." Mr. Weasly introduced the man. 'I'll explain latter.' Harry mouthed to Ron and Hermione.

"Are you all patrolling?" Remus asked the older group of the Weasley's.

"Just Charlie, and myself. We convinced mom and dad that it would be embarrassing for Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron to have their parents on the train. And Percy has to get back to the Ministry, he starts to get migraines if he's away too long." Bill joked. Percy made a face, even though he worked for the Order now, they still liked to make fun of Percy's dedication to the Ministry. "Speaking of patrolling, we better be off, we should get there soon." Bill added and the group said their goodbye's. 

"Be careful." Mrs. Weasley warned. "And don't get into to much trouble." She added threateningly to Fred and George as they ran through the barrier. 

"They'll have a little competition this year." Harry added quietly to his two friends who looked at him curiously. The three got onto the train and found their own compartment. Hermione had obviously been made a prefect, but Harry and Ron convinced her not to sit with the rest of the prefects. They spent the trip telling stories about their vacation, Harry told them everything about the Order and his new castle and all of that. But what they really wanted to know Harry wouldn't tell them.

"Come on Harry, what did you mean when you said they'd have a little competition this year?" Ron begged Harry to tell him for the tenth time. 

"I told you before Ron, you're just going to have to wait until the feast to see." Ron was about to argue when Malfoy and his two goons walked into the compartment. 

"I see the Mudblood, the Muggle Lover, and scar face found each other again." Malfoy said mockingly. Harry stepped in front of Ron and simply said, 

"Did you all have a good summer? Or did you just lie where we left you until people started to load onto the train today?" Harry asked, referring to when they cursed Malfoy and his gang for disrespecting the memory of Cedric Diggory. Malfoy tensed up and stared coldly back into his enemy's eyes.

"That was luck Potter. It took five of you to bring us down, it won't happen again." Malfoy spat.

"Well we'll see won't we. Maybe we'll meet up in the dueling tournament." At this statement Malfoy looked slightly confused. "Oh you don't know about the dueling tournament? Didn't your father tell you? Ah, that's right, your father found himself in a little bit of trouble didn't he? Got thrown in Azkaban with the dementors. How _is _his arm doing by the way?" Harry asked sarcastically. 

"He's out of Azkaban now, and he's coming after you and that muggle friend of yours. Only a muggle would pull a sword on a wizard." This put Harry over the edge. He wasn't sure why, but he had taken a particular liking to Patrick.

"Patrick English is far from a muggle. Now leave this compartment while you can still do so on your own accord." Harry whispered between his teeth venomously. Draco didn't look like he wanted to test Harry so he turned and left, Crabbe and Goyle in tow. 

"Well that was interesting." Ron said. And they spent the rest of the trip talking and joking.

The Order members and the protection auror's had stayed out of site during the train ride and the first sign that something as different at Hogworts came when Hagrid's shout's of "First Year's follow me!" were accompanied by Remus yelling "Second and above come this way." The students thought I was odd, no one had ever lead them anywhere when they got off the train before. Harry knew it was because Dumbledore didn't want anyone to see the dragons at the gates until he had told them all. The trio climbed into a carriage and were shortly joined by Neville and then they were off. As they were walking into the Great Hall Remus walked up to Harry. 

"Harry, I need to speak with you before the feast." Remus said. 

"Just watch this." Harry whispered to his friends and walked off with Remus. Ron and Hermione looked at one another and then went to find seats at their table. As everyone was filling in and all sat down, Dumbledore stood up to begin his beginning of the year feast. The whole hall got silent but before he could get started a huge eagle soared into the hall out of the owlry. Everyone looked up at the bird. Not only was this a beautiful bird to be delivering mail, but no mail usually came until the next morning. As it got closer to the tables, the students were further intrigued by the fact that it appeared to be carrying a howler. The bird soared across the hall and over to the Slytherin table. It landed right in front of Malfoy. The boy was stunned. Never had his parents thought to send him a howler. But knowing that running would only make him look like a coward, and not opening it worse, Malfoy, with trembling hands opened the letter, instantly it began to roar: MALFOY YOU SLIMY SLYTHERIN! THE MARUARDERS MINUS ONE ARE BACK; WITH PRONG'S SON STEPING IN FOR HIM! LOOK AROUND EVERY CORNER! CHECK EVERY BIT OF FOOD! NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE MARUARDERS PRANKS! THAT GOES FOR SLYTHERIN'S, HUFFELPUFF'S, RAVENCLAWS, THE STAFF, AND YES, EVEN THE OCCASIONAL GYRIFFINDOR! THE MARUARDERS ARE BACK TO RULE THE SCHOOL! SLIMY, GREASY HAIRED, COCKY, RICH LITTLE SLYTHERIN'S (YES, MALFOY, WE'RE TALKING ABOUT YOU) WILL BE PRANKED THE WORST AND YOU WILL WISH YOU WERE BACK AS A BOUNCING FERRET WHEN WE ARE DONE WITH YOU! HAVE A GOOD FEAST! And with those words the letter was reduced to ashes. Malfoy was so red in the face the house elves could have cooked the eggs on him. The whole hall was silent for a few moments before everyone (with the exception of the Slytherines) burst into laughter. Even some of the teachers had to hold back smiles. Some of the teachers that is, but Snape looked like he was about to explode himself. There's no doubt that after the Marauder's last reign Snape knows what it is like to be embarrassed in front of the whole school. After minutes of roaring laughter Dumbledore had to shoot off sparks and make loud bangs to regain the attention of the student body. "Well, that was interesting." Dumbledore commented with a slight smile. "However, on a more serious note, amusing or not, any student that is found sending howlers to fellow students will face severe consequences." Dumbledore still had the glint in his eyes that showed he had been amused. He knew that it was Harry's animugus for that delivered the letter, but could not say anything because it would give away that Harry was an unregistered animugus. He also knew that if the Marauder's were mentioned in the note that Sirius and Remus were probably involved too. But now was not the time. 

"I'm afraid that I can not keep up the joking mood. I have some grave announcements to make. As you may have noticed, you were ushered to the school by grown wizards. These wizards are known as The Order of the Phoenix. Some of the Order members will be staying at Hogworts during this school year. I assure you they are here for your protection and I ask that you do not bother them. Anyone found interfering with Order business will be dealt with harshly. In result of the Order staying here, again the third floor corridor will be out of bounds. Another precaution we have taken I'm sure none of you have noticed. Guarding the gates to the school are two fully grown dragons." At this announcement Dumbledore again lost the students in an uproar of conversation. "I promise you that they will not leave their post, and therefore will not attack any student. However, if you are not escorted by a teacher or Order member, I must tell you that you can not come into the grounds, unless you feel you are ready to take on two fully grown guard dragons, and I guarantee you no student is. I do not know why I have to continually say this, but the Forbidden Forest is, as the name states; forbidden. There are more creatures in there than ever before and no student should try to sneak in. On a lighter note, I am happy to reinstate the inter-house Quidditch Cup!" Dumbledore didn't even try to calm the crowd down for a few minutes after this announcement. "However I warn members of the Quidditch teams that you do not have much time to train. The season will be over and the cup awarded before Christmas Break." 

"WHAT! WHY SO SOON! THAT'S NOT ENOUGH TIME TO TRAIN!" The Weasly twins roared.

"It will end so soon, because when we get back from Christmas Break we will be holding a tryout for a Hogworts team. Anyone who wishes to join the team can try out. This team will be competing in a tournament against Beauxbatons and Durmstrang." Again the hall burst into conversation. "I  ask that you hold your excitement until I am done with all my announcements." Dumbledore added a little coolly. The hall was instantly silent. "Another inter-school tournament is set to be held between the three schools. It will begin in early November and end just before Christmas Break. This will be a Dueling Tournament." You could feel everyone's excitement but no one spoke. They just continued to listen to Dumbledore speak. "To prepare for this tournament, and unfortunately to prepare for the upcoming fight against Voldermort," the whole hall flinched, "we will be hosting a Dueling Class for everyone fourth year and above. You also have to meet those age requirement to compete in the tournament."  Many one the younger students looked disappointed at this. "This class will be taught by an old teacher, everyone please welcome back Professor Lupin." The hall (excluding the Slytherines) burst into a huge ovation. This is one of two new courses added to the curriculum, for longer than I can remember dark creatures have been taught in with Defense Against the Dark Arts. Well starting this year you will take Defense Against the Dark Arts in addition to Defense Against Dark Creatures. As not many people have volunteered for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, something about it being cursed," Dumbledore gave a small smile, "I will be coming out of teaching retirement to instruct this class." The whole student body was in awe of the thought of learning from the great Albus Dumbledore, and the whole burst into an applause about the same size as Lupin's. "The teacher for Defense Against Dark Creatures will be Patrick English." Harry clapped particularly loud for Patrick but from the rest of the hall it was pretty much just the polite applause. Now I have rambled for long enough its time for the sorting. (A/N: I am hopeless at poetry and none of the first years will play a big part in the story so let's just pretend the sorting is over with).  

"Wow it's about time we've got some food. I'm starving." Ron said as he shoveled food in his mouth.

"You're always hungry, Ron" Hermione pointed out.

"Saddup." Ron tried to tell Hermione to shut up and shove food in his mouth at the same time.

"Say Ron, you thinking about trying out for the team?" Harry asked breaking up the fight he saw that was about to come. They didn't need a fight on the first day. "You know, we need a keeper and a chaser." 

"Ya I think I might." Ron answered. 

"I'm really looking forward to the dueling tournament. You two will try out right?" Hermione asked. Harry and Ron both shook their heads 'yes'. 

"If she tries and make us study for that I'm going to go insane." Ron whispered to Harry. The rest of the feast went on uneventful and before he knew it Harry was asleep in his bed. 

A/N: Well that's it. What did you guys think? It wasn't as long as the last one but it was a decent size I think. Plus it came out really fast! Less than 24 hours. But don't expect another chapter until a couple days after Christmas. I'm so happy I finally got to the school year. That's what I've been waiting for. Please tell everyone you know about this story, I want to have 50 reviews by the time I put my next chapter out. So review and tell everyone you know to do the same!! Thank you for reading!


	12. An Eventful First Day

A/N: All right I know that this took a while, I'm sorry. I hope you like it. Here are answers to your reviews

Wolfmoon: I know you beat me to the punch again. I know I haven't reviewed your story in a while and I'm going to try and catch back up soon. Thanks for the review!

Master-of-Magic: thank you, that makes me feel good. I think it has fewer reviews then it deserves too. I think this is a little more realistic too. Thanks for the review!

Takari4ever7: the howler came to me one day and I thought it was a good idea. I'm glad you liked it.

Queen of Redwall: thank you I'll go back and change it when I get a chance. 

Queen of Redwall: thank you for the review. In response to what you said about wolfmoon's stories, all I'll say is this; though I stand behind my high recommendations of her stories, her and I have different ideas of what Harry is really like. I hope that you will still read this story.

ER: hey thanks where did you think of that prank? Did you take that from a story or come up with it? Thanks for the review.

Takari4ever7: Hermione and Ron will begin to play a much bigger part in the story now that we are in Hogworts.

Dark: thanks for the chapter title idea. I think I'll use it.

Fairymagic689: the duel idea was also one of my favorites. I'm glad you like it. Thanks!  

White owl: I'm glad someone said something about the teachers. I wasn't sure what the reaction would be. The dueling will start soon.

Twilight witch: I'm sorry this wasn't out as quickly as I had hoped. I hope you still like it. Thanks for the review.

RJLL: no pranks in this one but I hope you still like it! Thanks for the feedback.

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

"Ron, Ron, Ron! WAKE UP!" Harry yelled.

"Give me two more minutes." Ron pleaded.

"You said that fifteen minutes ago. GET UP!" This time Harry physically pulled Ron out of the bed and onto the floor.

"Ouch! That hurt." Ron whined.

"Good, get changed. I'll be in the Great Hall. I'm not waiting any more. I'm hungry." With that Harry took off to breakfast. About five minutes later Ron arrived. 

"Here, these were already passed out." Hermione said as she handed Ron his timetable, clearly disapproving of him being late.

"Oh! Potions first thing in the morning, on a Monday, and with the Slytherines? Is Dumbledore trying to kill us?" Ron complained after he looked at his schedule.

"I know, and after that howler yesterday, I don't expect Snape will be in a very good mood." Harry remarked.

"Well, we better get going. We'll be late." Hermione said. There were only a few others still in the hall.

Ron looked horrified, as he stared down at all the food he just put down on his plate. 

"But I just got here." He protested.

"Extra incentive to be on time from now on." Hermione said simply. Ron frowned at her and the three headed off for potions. 

"Everyone sit down! We don't have time to waste." Snape snapped as he walked into the room. The whole class scrambled for their seats. "Today we will be working on a simple truth potion, it can, with some practice, be thrown off. That's what we will learn next time. But for now, get out your ingredient and I'll put the directions on the board." They worked silently for about forty minutes, then Hermione leaned over to help Harry. This was when the mayhem started.

"There should be no talking, Granger!" Snape growled.

"She was just trying to help me." Harry snapped back. That was a big mistake. 

"I wasn't talking to you, Potter. Ten points. As defiant as your stupid father." Snape whispered the last part, thinking no one heard him. But Harry heard. So he turned to say something to Ron. "I said no talking Potter. Stay after class." Harry was so angry he was about to burst. But he kept his eyes down, staring into the cauldron until the bell rang. He packed his things and walked to the front of the class. "Did I, or did I not, tell you there was to be no talking?" Snape addressed Harry without looking up from his papers.

"I heard what you said about my father." Harry said as an answer.

"I asked you a question." Snape now looked up.

"I think you owe me an apology." Harry was still defiant.

"Let me tell you something Potter,: Snape was now whispering, and he had leaned forward so his face was very close to Harry's, "I don't _owe, _you anything. This is my classroom, and I will say what I please." Snape was now very angry. "Dumbledore will hear of this insolence."

"He certainly will, Snape. He happened to be quite fond of my father, and I do not think he will take a liking to you dishonoring his memory!" Harry yelled, speaking a lot braver than he felt. He was quickly silenced though as Snape stood up and drew his wand, though he still held it at his side, pointing down. 

"Snape spoke in no more than a whisper, but his message was loud and clear, "You will address me as professor, or sir, or I will personally see to it that you will never speak again." Now Snape raised his wand so it was eye level with Harry, and Harry lost every bit of confidence he had built up. He began to shrink backwards.

"Is that so?" A voice interrupted from the doorway. Remus Lupin, also with his wand drawn, practically ran over to stand in front of Harry. "Put your wand away, Snape." Lupin ordered.

"As I just told Mr. Potter, this is my classroom and I will not be told what to do." Snape retorted.

"I'll tell you one more time, then I'll blast your god damn arm off the rest of your body." Remus threatened. 

"You little-" Snape raised his wand again, ready to attack.

"SEVERUS!" Anther interruption came from the door. This time from Dumbledore. "My office." He ordered. "NOW!" he said again when he noticed Snape was not moving. Slowly Snape lowered his wand and stalked out of the room. "Remus, please escort Harry to his next class." Dumbledore said shortly, then followed in Snape's dust.

"Well, he's not very happy, is he?" Harry tried to joke.

"He'll get over it." Remus answered. They walked the rest of the way in silence. Soon they were at Harry's next class; Defense Against Dark Creatures. Again this class was with the Slytherines and Draco smiled as he saw Harry had been kept a long time with Snape. Harry and Remus whispered goodbye's to each other and Harry took his seat. Remus walked up to Patrick, said something quietly to him and walked away. Patrick frowned but continued with his lecture. Harry looked quickly at the room. It was not a regular classroom. All the desks were pushed to one side, looking facing the side of the class. The empty part of the classroom was huge. Harry quickly mouthed to his friends 'tell you later' and then started listening to Patrick. 

"So now that all the introductions are done with, you can all put away your books. You won't need them. In fact, you don't need to bring them to class again, unless I tell you a day ahead of time." The class cheered. They put their books away and took out their wands. "This is where this class is different though. You won't need your wands much either. We will be using other types of weapons. So before I start my demonstration, I will ask each of you to go to that closet over there, and take a sword out of it." Everyone was excited at learning how to use something besides a wand for protection, and they all jumped out of their seats and ran to the closet. The rest of the class wasn't very eventful for Harry though, Patrick was the only one using the sword, and everyone else just had one so they could look at things up close. Most of the things he was saying he had already told Harry. It was things like how to hold the sword. Before they knew it the class was nearly over. "Ok, next time we will be learning some basic motions with the sword, so be ready. Now put them back into the cabinet, Filch would kill me if I let you guys walk around the castle with swords." Patrick said with a smile. They all walked over to the cabinet and everyone was talking excitedly. Harry could see Malfoy making faces to Crabbe and Goyle in the corner and the two goons laughed. Apparently Patrick heard them. His face got hard and he asked Malfoy, "What was that, Mr. Malfoy?" Malfoy looked at his two buddies and the smile wiped off his face.

"I said," Malfoy's voice was slightly shaking, "now we have a muggle teaching us, and we can't even use our wands." As the words came out he looked a little more confident. Patrick lost his temper. He took two quick steps forwards, pushed Crabbe and Goyle out of the way and grabbed a handful of Malfoy's robes. He slammed Malfoy against the wall and still holding on to him said,

"If you ever call me a muggle again, I'll blow your head right off, with my wand." He added the last part for affect.

"My father will kill you," Malfoy spat. Patrick pulled him a little away from the wall and then slammed him back into it,

"You ask your father if I'm someone to mess with." Patrick growled. Patrick pushed Malfoy one last time then turned to walk away. Malfoy fell to the ground. 

"Am I interrupting something?" Dumbledore's voice came from the door. He eyed Malfoy, who was reaching into his robes, and quickly took his hand away when he saw the headmaster.

"Nothing Albus." Patrick said calmly.

"Good. Patrick I would like to speak with you in my office," Dumbledore then got closer to him and whispered, "order business." He stepped back and now said for the whole class to hear, "Ms. Granger, as the only prefect in the room, can you watch over the class until the bell rings." 

"Certainly, sir." Hermione looked ecstatic. Dumbledore got closer to Harry and said very quietly so no one else could hear,

"And I'd like to see you at the end of the day. Don't worry you're not in trouble." Harry smiled back at the man,

"Aren't you just in all the right places today."

"Purely coincidence, Harry." Dumbledore answered back with a wink.

"Ya right." Harry said and with a final smile Dumbledore turned and walked out of the room with Patrick in tow. 

Harry heard Malfoy in the corner saying something about his father coming after Patrick. 

Against his better judgment Harry walked over to his enemy. "Why don't you ask your father how he lost his arm." Harry suggested. 

"What are you talking about Potter?" Malfoy demanded. 

"Oh so you don't know, he tried to kidnap me, then curse Patrick. So Patrick cut it off." Malfoy took a step towards Harry but Ron intercepted him with a hand to his chest. Then the bell rang. Malfoy pushed through Ron and Harry but turned around when he reached the door.

"I'm going to see you in the corridor one day Harry. When your friends aren't there to step between us, and there is no bell to ring."

"I look forward to it." Harry called back as the boy turned to leave. "He's such a pleasant boy." Harry remarked to Ron and the two of them went to go catch up to Hermione.

A/N: This seems like a good place to stop. I'm really sorry this took so long. I've been so busy and then ff.net has been down. This was a struggle to just find time to do this one but I have a new system I set up for myself that will hopefully insure a more steady flow of chapters. Please review! 


	13. Headsets and Orbs

A/N: Alright I have an excuse for my long absence. I took finals yesterday and Wednesday so all month I have been studying for them. You will be happy to hear (or at least I am) that all the studying paid off. I got two B+'s and two A's. But besides just finals I had made up my mind that I was postponing this story and starting a story about Harry after Hogwarts but then I got some reviews for this one that made me change my mind. But I am still interested in the other story so I have decided that when I'm done with this one, I'll start that one. I have some really good ideas for it, I think anyway.

Thank You's: I can't get in to read my reviews right now but I'll thank everyone for the last two chapters next time

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

****

The rest of Harry's day went by pretty much uneventfully. They had an introduction to what they would be doing in Herbology right after lunch, and then the fifth year Gryffindor's were free for the rest of the day. Everyone was sitting around the common room talking. Harry had filled in Ron and Hermione about what happened in Snape's room after they left. Ron called him some names but even Hermione found it hard to disapprove considering what he did. 

"Well, I have to go see Dumbledore. He told me he wanted to talk to me today. I'll see you guys later." Harry said after Ron beat him for the fifth time in chess. As Harry climbed out of the portrait hole he heard Ron trying to convince Hermione to play. Harry walked through the halls of Hogwarts. Finally he reached the gargoyle and gave the password.  He knocked on the door and Dumbledore called for him to come in. Dumbledore was shuffling around some papers when he realized it was Harry.

"Ah, Harry, I've been expecting you." He greeted him with a smile. Then looked down at the papers he was holding, "I didn't remember how much work it was teaching." 

"Maybe you shouldn't give any homework? Then you wouldn't have to correct any of it." Harry said with a small laugh.

"Nice try, Harry. Please, sit down." He gestured to the seat in front of his desk which Harry took. "From what I hear you had quite an interesting day." Dumbledore said.

"Yes I did. But it wouldn't be a true year at Hogwarts if someone didn't threaten to kill me, right?" Harry tried to keep up the joking mood. "We might as well have gotten it over with right away."

"I have spoken with Professor Snape Harry, and I assure you he was caught up in the moment and would not have acted on the threat."

"Does Sirius know what happened?" Harry asked.

"I'm afraid so. And I had almost gotten him to put aside his dislike for Snape. I don't think this will do anything for that. But in any case, I did not call you here to talk about this. I hope we can all put this little incident behind us." 

"Of course, sir. Consider it forgotten." Harry said what he thought Dumbledore wanted to hear.

"Thank you Harry. What I called you here for is Order business." Dumbledore started searching in his drawers for something when there was another knock on the door. "Who is it?" Dumbledore called. From the other side of the door they heard a bark. Harry looked questioningly at Dumbledore. The headmaster nodded his head and Harry got up and opened the door. He was greeted by a large black dog. The dog stepped into the room and when Harry closed the doors he changed into Sirius Black. 

"Running a little behind schedule are we, Sirius?" 

"Sorry, Albus. Lost track of time." Sirius answered with a smile on his face.

"Doing something productive I assume?" Dumbledore answered back with the same smile.

"Of course." Was all Sirius answered. 

"Well I was just about to give Harry his headset, so why don't you explain it to him while I go back and look for it.

"Hey, now that we're at Hogwarts, I have a mission for you." Harry looked at him quizzically. Sirius lowered his voice, "Not a Order missions or anything like that, a marauder mission.  But I'll have to tell you another time.  Dumbledore will know we're up to something if you don't know about the headset when he comes back out."

"What headset?" Harry asked.

"That's what I'm about to tell you. You see, it started back when the marauders were at school. We had to be in different parts of the school to set off pranks, but everything had to be timed perfectly for the pranks to work. Well, I won't tell you how it all happened right now, but let's just say that Dumbledore was walking down the hall instead of Snape. And we weren't expecting this. It was too late to call off the pranks because once the first one went off they all went off. Dumbledore wasn't very happy, we ended up with two weeks detention." Sirius ended with a smile.

"I don't think you would have been happy either. It took me those two weeks to get that smell off me." Dumbledore was standing in a doorway off to the side of his main office. "Anyway, that isn't part of the story." Dumbledore still had a smile on his face. He seemed to have a soft spot for pranks, and for the marauders. 

"Well we decided we needed to be able to talk to each other while we were apart, so we came up with the idea of magical headsets. The way they work is you just think of the person you want to talk to, and as long as they have a headset, you can talk to them. And if you're close enough to the person, all you have to do is talk inside your head and they can hear you. But you have to be close, almost in the same room.  Of course we had to make them invisible so the teachers couldn't see them." 

"What does this all have to do with the Order?" Harry asked.

"Well, one night during the summer Remus and I were telling the story about a prank we did using the headsets, and Albus suggested that we, oh what did you say?" He asked the last part to Dumbledore.

"Use that idea a little more productively." Dumbledore laughed. "Something that could go along with most of your ideas."  

"Right. So since then me and Remus have been working on these things. Albus, do you have it?" Sirius asked Dumbledore. 

The headmaster pulled a headset thing out of his pocket. It was strange looking. It had a small earpiece on both sides, and it had a strap that connected over the head. Then coming down from the left ear piece was a small microphone. Dumbledore handed Harry the headset and Sirius stepped up in front of Harry. Sirius put it on Harry and looking in the mirror Harry saw that you could not see it at all. Amazingly you couldn't feel it either.

"It feels like it's not even there." Harry announced his thoughts.

"I know, isn't it cool? And it will always stay in spot, you'll never have to adjust it. Its range is about 10,000 miles. But it gets real hard to hear after about 7,000." 

"This will come in very handy. If we are going out on a mission, we can connect all of the headsets so you don't have to think everyone's name. Or if we are in a small group you can connect just their sets." Dumbledore explained its real advantages until Sirius broke in.

"Ya, and just imagine all the pranks we can pull now." All three men laughed.

"It's about time we all went to sleep. Harry, I know you'll tell Ron and Hermione no matter what, but try and keep this a secret besides them." Dumbledore said.

"Yes, sir." Harry answered. 

"Hey Harry, when you get to the common room try it out. All the people in the Order have them now."

Harry left the room with a big smile. He walked back to the common room and everyone was asleep. He looked at the clock and was surprised, it was already 11:00.

The rest of Harry's week was normal. If you could consider anything that happened at Hogwarts normal.  "Wow, I can't believe it's already Friday." Ron said during lunch.

"I know. One more class and the first week is over." Hermione agreed. 

"And our last class is Dueling!" Neville piped in. Harry's face lit up at this. He had been looking forward to Remus's class. 

"Well we better leave now or we'll be late." Hermione was always concerned about being late.  

When the Gryffindor's arrived at the dueling room they were happy to see that they didn't have this class with the Slytherines. In fact, they didn't have this class with anybody.  They all looked around the room very impressed when they got in. It was set up much like the DADC room but in the middle was some sort of circular ring that was enclosed with an orange type glowing orb. "Ok, all right, everyone sit down I'll explain the ring." Everyone in the class was eager to learn about the ring so they rushed to their seats. "This ring is the standard ring for dueling competition. And if any of you make the Hogwarts team, then this is what you will be dueling in.  The ring itself is just a standard 6 foot diameter circle.  The orange orb is the amazing part.  It revolutionized the sport of dueling.  While in the orb, nothing can hurt you."

"You don't feel any pain?" Someone from the back shouted.

"Oh no, you feel the pain.  You feel the pain as much as if I were to put a curse on you right now.  But the beautiful thing is, that no matter what happens to you in there, it's not permanent.  This way even if you are dueling with your best friend you don't have to hold back at all.  If I were to kill you inside that orb and then drag your body back out of it, you would still be alive.  Depending on what I did you might be a little shaken up, or even blacked out for as long as a day, but you're not dead.  If I cut your arm off and you stepped outside of the orb, your arm could just be placed back on you." 

"Why don't auror's and other dark wizard fighters use it?" Harry asked. 

"Because for the spell to work, the two people who are going to duel have to touch wand tips outside of the orb and then step into the orb together as they keep their wands together."  Everyone was amazed at what this orb could do.  "Now there are two ways to win a proper duel. The first way is to get a hold of your opponents wand and keep a hold of it for ten seconds.  If you do this by using a simple disarming spell, or if you do something to incapacitate your opponent and then walk up to him or her and just take it away it doesn't matter.  The other way to win is to make your opponent step out of the orb.  Now you cannot force them to leave through any means, it won't work.  The dueler has to leave under their own free will.  This is the drastic way of living because someone usually leaves to stop the pain that they are going though.  Are there any questions? Yes, Ron?"

"What if someone accidentally steps out of the orb?"  Ron asked.

"Good question.  That can't happen.  The dueler has to have the intention of leaving the orb or the orb will not let them out.  It will act as a wall.  No more questions, good then I want to see what you guys are made of.  Who is our first volunteer?"

A/N: Alright who do you guys want to see duel? I'll leave it up to you. I took a big chance with this orb thing, either you guys will love it or hate it I think. Tell me in you REVIEWS!!!   


	14. CRIMINAL CHARGES

A/N: Was this fast? I got it up as soon as I could.

Thank You's: 

New Blank: Thank you for the suggestions. There will be Quidditch, but it won't be until the second half of the story.

New Blank: I'm not sure whether or not Harry and Snape will make up. But I do think that you can be on the same side and still have a strong dislike for each other. And if you leave your e-mail address I may take you up on your offer of helping me with the wording of some things. Did this come to you as you read something you didn't like the way something was worded?

New Blank:  I debated for a long time whether or not to put Percy in the Order. I'm not sure I like him in it, but I wouldn't have liked it without him in either. I don't think he will play a large role in it. And I don't know how many people will point out that I spell the Cruciatus Curse wrong and I appreciate you pointing it out. I try to look for it but I'm pretty much hopeless at remembering how to spell it. As far as Dumbledore yelling, I'm not completely sure where in the story you're talking about, but I think it might be in Snape's classroom? If that is it I know what you are talking about. I felt it was necessary to have him yell to show how much tension was at the meeting.  

WolfMoon: You beat me to the punch AGAIN! I thought I would get this one up quick enough. Thanks for the review I hope this was quick enough. 

Raven of the Night: First I would like to thank twilight witch for recommending this story to you. If anyone likes this story, getting someone else to read and review it is the best thing you can do. And I'd like to thank you for putting me on your favorites list. I will check out her story. I like Patrick's character too, I'm not sure what type of role he will play in the future, that is left to be seen. I'm glad the howler went over big. The first review I got about it didn't like it but everyone since then has said they thought it was great.

Endless-luv: I'm sorry I haven't updated. Thanks for reviewing and I hope you like this one.

Perc Mad Hatter: Thank you I have tried to stay realistic while still being original. You are the first person who has picked up on the origins of Patrick, or at least the first to mention it. And he is defiantly not a Mary-Sue. As you have seen he is not perfect, he has a temper.

RJLL: That was very high praise, thank you. I'm glad you liked the Harry and Snape fight, with Remus saving the day. I thought it needed to be a little serious with some breaks in pranks. This story will be more on the serious side, but of course it will have some comic relief. 

Dramaqueen: Thank you I appreciate you looking that up for me. And yes, the Weasley's will have to work over time. 

Icedrake: Wow you're a pretty violent person huh? Well good ideas I'll take them into consideration.

WolfMoon: I know this wasn't as quick as you would have hoped but I still hope it is okay. Thanks for the review. I hope your vacation (is that why you were in Australia I'm guessing? Vacation?) was fun!

Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord

"Harry?" Harry heard in his ear.  He looked around and no one was talking to him.  He was confused. "Harry? It's Dumbledore. Did you forget about the headset?"  Dumbledore asked.  Then Harry remembered.  He had forgotten.  "I know you can't talk right now or you'll look suspicious, couch in you're listening." Harry thought of Dumbledore in is head and then coughed out load. "Good. Cough again if you are in class right now." Harry repeated the process. "Are you with Remus?" Harry coughed again.

"Harry, are you all right?" Ron asked.

"Ya, I'm fine." Harry answered. 

"Ok you guys need to come to my office right away." Dumbledore said again.  Harry had an idea.  Remus was still looking for a volunteer.

"I'll do it, Professor." Harry piped up. "How about me versus you?" Harry suggested.

"That's a rather bold challenge, Harry.  But if you say so."  Harry remembered what Sirius and Dumbledore told him about being in the say room as someone with the headset so he thought in his head to Remus, 'D_on't ask questions. When we get in there, use a stunning curse on me right away. When you drag me out of the orb say that you must have put to much force behind it and that we need to go to the Hospital wing. Dismiss the class and take me to Dumbledore's office.' _

"Okay Harry. Let's go."  Remus answered with a knowingly look in his eye.  Harry thought he got the message. They got into the ring and bowed to each other. Remus counted and before Harry could even think of a curse he was knocked out by a stunning spell.  Remus dragged Harry out of the orb. 

"Wow that was really fast!" Neville exclaimed. 

"Yes it was. And I think I used a little too much force behind it. He needs to see Madam Pomfrey. I'll take him there and explain what happened. Class dismissed."  The whole class looked a little worriedly at Harry. "Don't worry. He'll be at dinner tonight. This is just precautionary." Having been assured their classmate was okay the whole class ran out of the hall excited that they had the rest of the day off. 

"What's going on, Albus?" Remus asked when he got to Dumbledore's office.  Harry had been revived and Sirius was there too. 

"I have some very disappointing news. Sirius, as we all know is a convicted murder and he's wanted for escaping from prison." Dumbledore started to explain.

"I assume you didn't call us to your office in the middle of class to tell us Sirius is still a wanted man?" Remus asked sarcastically. Dumbledore smiled.

"You're right. What I called you here to tell you is that the Minister Fudge has just issued a warrant for the arrest of Harry, you, and myself." All the men in the room looked shocked.

"What for?" was all Harry could say.

"Remus, you are charged with aiding a known felon. Harry, you and I are charged with that, along with not cooperating with a Ministry investigation." Dumbledore said simply. 

"What investigation is that?" Sirius asked. He was enraged.

"The third task of the tri-wizard tournament."

"What? I answered every question they asked me!" Harry was just as mad as Sirius, but he was scared too. 

"Harry I know. But that's not all. They have also named you a prime suspect in the murder of Cedric Diggory." Dumbledore looked furious just saying it.

"WHAT!?" Murder? Albus isn't there anything you can do?" Remus almost pleaded with the man. 

"I'm afraid not. I pulled all the strings I have in the ministry, but this one comes straight from Fudge. He's not backing down. What I did do is get my friends up there to convince Fudge to keep this quiet for two weeks. He said if we haven't turned ourselves in by then, he'll charge us with resisting arrest and evading capture."

"But then that buys us time to prove we're innocent? Right?" Remus was almost hysterical.

"I'm not sure anything we can do will prove ourselves innocent. Fudge has it in for us. He has since the day after the third task. And I heard a rumor that Lucius Malfoy is threatening him pretty bad to make these things stick." Dumbledore looked down at the ground.

"Well then there seems to be only one option. The Minister is a threat to us. If he is a threat to us then he is a threat to the Order. And without the Order Voldermort will surely win." Sirus started.

"I have some of the best lawyers looking into it. If it comes down to it we may have to legally secede. Call the Order of the Phoenix a separate nation." Dumbledore started. 

"No. That puts everyone in the Order in danger. Plus we can't win this war without the support of the other Ministries. There's only one way to do this." Sirius began but was interrupted by Remus.

"What are you thinking about Sirius?" 

"Remus, are you still an agent?" The other three men seemed to know what was going on but Harry was completely lost. 

"Sirius, you're not talking about what you think I am are you?" Dumbledore questioned. 

"If this is really coming from Malfoy, there is a chance they have turned Fudge. Even if he's not a true death eater, it's clear whose calling the shots.  We can't let them get a control of the Ministry. Then we have no chance. Moony, are you still an agent?" 

"Sirius you can't possibly be talking about an assassination?" Remus answered Sirius's question with a question.  Harry now felt it was time for him to ask questions. 

"Assassination? What are you guys talking about? What kind of agent are you Remus?" Harry tried to ask all the questions at once.

"Don't worry about it. Sirius doesn't know what he's talking about." Remus said.

"No, I am worried about it. If this involves me I want some answers." Harry demanded. Remus was about to begin again but Dumbledore interrupted him. 

"He's right Remus. He needs to know what we are talking about. Sirius, why don't you start the story?"

"Alright, where do I start?" Sirius asked no one in particular. " First of all, what I'm about to tell you is highly classified. You cannot tell anyone what  I say. Not even Ron and Hermione. Do you understand?" Harry shook his head in agreement. "Well, you want to know what your dad did for a living?" Harry nodded his head in agreement. "Well, as far as most people were concerned he was a man that worked at a desk in the Ministry. A historian. He did research. Most people said they didn't think that James's personality fit his job. They were right. James, Remus, Albus, and I worked for the Unspeakables."

 "Well don't they do lots of research too?" Harry asked.

"The Unspeakables that you are familiar with, yes. They work with new curses and things like this. The group we worked for wasn't officially recognized by the Department of Mysteries; though it was funded through them. The head of the Department probably doesn't even know about them anymore. This group was started during Gridawald's time. The Auror's got wind that he was being supported and funded by the Yemen Ministry. Spies told us that only the Minister wanted to support him, but no one in his cabinet was brave enough to stand up to him. So there was a covert operation set up. It was called Operation: Nightfall. We wanted to eliminate the Yemen Minister, but it had to look like an accident. It _couldn't_ be traced back to us. So there was a little group started called the Counter Governments Unit, or CGU." Sirius was very serious while telling the story.

 "Well if it was auror's that got the information then why does the group come out of the Department of Mysteries?" Harry asked.

"Good question. The DoM gets all of its money from the Ministry. But the Ministry doesn't know what it's paying for. The Department head just tells the Ministry how much it needs, and the Ministry gives it to them. The Department head is put under a spell so he can't be making up a number and pocketing the extra cash, so when he said he needed more money, no one asked questions." Dumbledore responded. 

"Anyway, there are two types of people that work for CGU. Dumbledore worked in their offices. Those people kind of run the show. Everyone knows they are Unspeakables so no one asks what they do. The other types of people that work for them are CGU Agents. That's what me, Remus, and your dad did. We take on regular jobs, and when they need us, they tell us. We go in and do what we have to do." Sirius continued. 

"You assassinate people?" Harry asked bluntly.

"Not always. Sometimes we have to gather Intel, sometimes we have to find people on the inside to spy for us, sometimes we have to spy ourselves. And sometimes, yes we have to assassinate people. But Harry you have to understand, not all governments are good. Sometimes they need to be dealt with harshly, but quietly. Now you know what's going on, Harry. So Remus, are you still an agent?" Sirius asked again.

"A couple years ago I was on a mission in China, I was made, and I had to get out. They haven't sent me on any big missions since then, but yes, I'm still an agent." Remus sounded ashamed when he said this. 

"Good, contact them, tell them what's going on, and tell them you're in touch with me. They'll give you a phone, you give it to me. That's as far as I'm asking you to go." Sirius was still very serious. 

"Like I said Sirius, they haven't sent me on many missions for a long time, I don't know how much weight my voice will carry." Remus tried to reason with his friend.

"Sirius was one of our best agents, you vouch for him, tell them to contact me if they need any more assurance. They do their homework pretty well, they have probably already heard about the charges brought against us, and if I'd be very disappointed to hear it if they are not digging up everything they can on Peter Pettigrew's death right now. Your call will probably give them all the confirmation they need to know Sirius is innocent." Dumbledore said. "But Sirius, the Protection Agents are guarding the Minister, couldn't they do anything we need done?" Dumbledore too tried to reason. 

"No. There could be a mole in there. Then this could get traced back to us, and that cannot happen. This is the only way and you know it. Let as little amount of people know as possible, okay?" Sirius sounded like he had made up his mind. "This is exactly why the agency was created." 

"I guess you're right." Dumbledore said. And Remus nodded his head in agreement. Harry was still trying to digest everything that he just learned. 

A/N: WOW! Two chapters in one day. And this one has a possible assassination attempt in it? Please read and review.

P.S.: The other story I was thinking about writing was about the CGU. Tell me if any of you guys would be interested in reading a story about it.


	15. Authors Note

A/N: I have decided to put this story on hold. It is not going in the speed or the direction I had hoped for. Every time I sit down to write, my mind starts ideas of that new story I was talking about. I am interested to hear if any of you would like to read my new story. If I get any positive feedback then I will go ahead and write it. I apologize to anyone who enjoyed this story and wanted to see it though. Maybe after my other story is done I will return to finish this one. Also, for any of you authors out there, I would be very happy if anyone wanted to continue this story themselves. If you want to continue it, can you please leave a review? I would really like to read someone else's take on it. Thank you for all the reviews and the support, I really appreciated it.

-Sirius Padriac


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